The Summit
by Ny Batteri
Summary: Word is out - a Daedric artifact of world-changing power is hidden somewhere in northern Cyrodiil. Nations will stop at nothing to get their hands on it, but a small party of adventurers is determined to beat them to it and retain peace in Tamriel.
1. Chapter 1

_Capstone Cave, north-west Cyrodiil. 23 Dawn's Beauty, 4E55_

The three adventurers raced through the tight, dark, damp tunnels of the cave, lit only by ghostly blue night-eye enchantments. They could not use torches or magical light – no-one could know they were in here.

_In the cave that bears the prize's name._

It was the one clue they had found that led to this location – Capstone Cave. The prize was known simply as the Capstone, a pyramid-shaped Daedric gemstone of simply immense power.

The man at the front of the group stopped at an intersection of three tunnels. He stood proud, wearing a suit of ultra-light Mithril armour built for him by master Elven craftsmen, with a thick fur coat wrapped around the top of it. Rare and valuable weapons hung from him – an ebony longbow on his back and a sword made from an extremely rare red glass sheathed on his belt. His name was Camri Everlight, and he was known everywhere. The man who saved the world.

And now the game was back on.

"Any ideas?" he asked to the two women who stood behind him.

"If what we know about the tomb is true, we need to head down," said the Imperial woman, Hermione Barca. She was Camri's newest adventuring partner, the daughter of a former member of the High Council of the Guild of Mages. She was the Arcane University's official treasure-hunter, frequently being dispatched to far-flung areas of Tamriel after a scholar discovered anything noteworthy when studying old texts. Camri, working as a freelance adventurer simply to make ends meet, often accompanied her – it was how he had come by much of the weaponry he carried with him.

Camri nodded down one of the tunnels, leading off to the right. Glancing at his compass, he saw that it was pointing north as he faced into the tunnel. Right into the heart of the mountain.

"It can't be far now," he said. "Ariel, any ideas how long we've got?"

"At the rate they were moving, maybe half an hour before they find the cave – if they can find it straight away"

Ariel Lasaille was a truly unique individual. A Breton in her early twenties, she was an extremely gifted mage in the field of mysticism, and also abnormally intelligent, leading many to describe her as having savant talents. Her grasp of mathematics and fuzzy logic enabled her to draw correct conclusions in fractions of a second, and she was widely accepted to be Tamriel's best practitioner of telekinesis. When she worked alongside Camri, the pair were virtually unstoppable.

"It's going to be close," Camri said, drawing a deep breath. "Come on"

The tunnel led down, steeply winding to impossible depths beneath the Jerall Mountains. As they descended, an ambient heat began to warm the tunnels, making a change to the cold, dank air higher up. The heat grew as the tunnel sank further still, until it flattened out at a complete dead end.

"This isn't good…" Hermione said. "But it doesn't make sense. This heat – it must be coming from somewhere…"

"Exactly" Camri said as he began running his hands along the wall, until suddenly he stopped dead. He ran his fingers over a tiny vertical seam in the rock, only a few millimetres across but perfectly straight – carved by man. Camri pushed against the rock wall next to the seam with his shoulder and a loud rumble suddenly sounded through the narrow tunnel, before an entire section of the cave wall quickly receded down into the ground, revealing a brick-clad tunnel beyond it. A hidden door.

"By the Gods, we've found it!" Camri exclaimed. "Come on!"

The three filed through the doorway, Ariel coming through last and pulling on a lever mounted on the wall just inside the corridor. It caused the false door to rise back up to its original position. They didn't want to make the task of finding the refuge any easier for their pursuers.

It didn't take long before the corridor rounded a sharp corner and the three beheld the stunning Refuge of Melethar.

_Bruma town, the previous day_

Camri Everlight was awoken just as dawn broke by a loud knock at his front door. Groaning, he climbed out of bed and wrapped his fur coat around him, and trudged up the stairs. Like many of the houses in Bruma, his bedroom was on a subterranean level, designed to hold in heat against the bitter elements outside. As he ascended the stairs, he heard the knock again.

But it didn't seem to be coming from the door.

Was his mind playing tricks on him? He'd lost count of how many times his tankard had been refilled with ale at the Tap and Tack the night before…

No, it had come from one of the windows facing out of the rear of the house. Someone was deliberately avoiding the front door.

Then, he saw it. It almost made him jump out of his skin. A face, peering through a window. A young Breton woman with wavy brown hair, a blue hood pulled over her head.

Camri undid the latches and threw the window open, helping her inside.

"Ariel! What are you…?"

"The Capstone. The game's on" Ariel said quickly, interrupting him.

Camri slammed the window shut with such force that a few clumps of snow tumbled off the roof of his house. "How do you know about the Capstone?"

"Jauffre has been in touch with me. He wanted to know if I knew anything that could help him find it"

"Jauffre's involved?" Camri asked, thinking about the retired Blades Grandmaster. He and Ariel had fought alongside the old monk many times – he was a trusted ally, and a good friend. After the dissolution of the Empire and the collapse of the Blades, he had become a freelance spy, selling information on to whoever he thought was most worthy of it. Camri had heard of the Capstone through Jauffre, through whisperings in the underground intelligence community. A Daedric artifact, thought to be pyramidal in shape, a Sigil stone of infinite power. An unlimited source of magicka.

Ariel almost read his mind. "I know enough about the Capstone to know that whoever gets their hands on it will be able to wield immense power over Tamriel. Think of how powerful a nation's armies could be if their weapons and armour were enchanted by a limitless source of energy…"

"I know," Camri said. "Ariel, ever since I've heard about the Capstone I've wanted to get my hands on it. Not to use it – to prevent others from abusing it. But nobody knows where it is… do they?"

Ariel nodded conspiratorially. "I know where the trail starts. A Dunmer called Melethar Selevras"

"Where do we find him?"

"He died hundreds of years ago," Ariel said flatly. "But he was the last of a Dunmer bloodline who were the keepers of the Capstone. I don't know how they got hold of it, but intense inter-house fighting and turf wars in Morrowind led to him spiriting the Capstone away while his family fought to the death to defend their lands from other powerful families"

"There are ancestral tombs bearing family names all over Morrowind. Surely…"

"No, that's where people have been going wrong. In a message he left behind in Morrowind which has been passed down as local knowledge, he said he was taking his worldly goods and inheritance and depositing the means to finding them in 'the cave that bears the prize's name'"

"The Capstone?"

"Yes, but I've only just made that connection. I've been reading into the Capstone ever since Jauffre approached me about it. It has been widely known that the Selevras family possessed the Capstone, but like you say, people have been concentrating their efforts in the family's burial chambers. But I checked the Selevras family manifest, and it seems that poor Melethar did not receive any inheritance from the family's elders. So, what is this inheritance and worldy goods that he spoke of?"

"The Capstone… Wait, what did you say the message he left behind was?"

"He said he hid the means to finding his treasure – obviously a map, a riddle, a codex, something like that – in the cave that bears the prize's name"

"Ariel, there's a Capstone Cave south of town…"

Ariel gasped. "Can it be?"

"There's only one way to find out," Camri said, running back down to his bedroom and calling back up the stairs. "I'll go to the Imperial City and fetch Hermione, you hit the books and find everything that you can about Melethar and Capstone Cave"

Ariel bounded down the stairs after Camri. "Wait… there's something else"

Camri stopped in his tracks and spun round. "What?"

"As soon as I left the library in Narsis where I was tracing Melethar's connections to the Capstone, a group of Dunmer men went in. They looked quite wealthy and were very threatening – they barged straight past me and marched up to the keeper of the library, demanding to see the Melethar family documents. If they made the same connection I did…"

"Then it's going to get a bit crowded in Capstone Cave. If they did, I doubt they'll be far behind you. We'll have to hurry"

Ariel nodded. "I'll meet you at the University tomorrow morning"

As Ariel turned to leave, Camri placed a hand on her shoulder. "It is nice to see you, by the way, you just caught me by surprise a bit"

Ariel smiled softly and wrapped her arms around Camri. Since their last quest together, they had not seen much of each other. They had spearheaded a nationwide effort to defeat a shadowy doomsday cult known as the Selective, a plot spanning back for aeons to destroy the whole universe. It had taken over their lives for years, and they had lost many dear friends during the quest. After its dramatic climax atop White Gold Tower, they had decided to try their best to go back to their old lives, Ariel working as a scholar and teacher at the Arcane University and Camri going back to freelance adventuring, with a few paid exploration jobs coming from the Imperial Cartography. As such, Camri had been quite surprised for Ariel to turn up at his house so suddenly.

But now it seemed they were once again to be drawn into a fight for the safety of the free world. Some things never changed.

_Capstone Cave, the present day_

The cave itself was impressive enough. It vaulted at least four hundred feet into the air, a cone-shaped cavern whose entire floor, bar a few man-made constructions, was a gigantic lake of lava. The heat was almost unbearable, as was the stench of gases, and a constant roar emanated from the very bowels of Nirn itself.

But at the other end was an even more impressive feature – seemingly carved into the very rock itself was an enormous, ornate wall, fortified with battlements and guard towers and with a large arch-shaped doorway in its centre. A wide forecourt made a few steps down to the lake of lava. But above the doorway was something quite unusual – a network of pipes and troughs carved into the stone. High above them all, at the top of the course, was a large funnel-shaped stone formation, above which was a sluice cut into the wall of the cave.

_Odd, _Camri thought, before he noticed the room's final feature. A narrow stone path skirted around one edge of the lake, at various points disappearing into the cavern wall and, near the forecourt where it emerged, it sank into a tunnel that went beneath the surface of the lava.

"It's a trap," Camri observed. "A bloody enormous time-and-speed trap"

"I think you're right," Hermione said. Ariel looked at the pair for explanation.

"My guess is that at some point on that stone path is a trigger stone," Camri explained. "It starts something – probably more lava – flowing out of that sluice up there and down the pipes. You have until it reaches the doorway into the fort to make it along this path, which I'm going to assume is laced with traps too…"

"We don't have time to ponder it…" Ariel said hurriedly.

"Right," Camri replied. "Follow me, and step exactly where I do"

Then, Camri took a deep breath and stepped out onto the pathway that led around the lava lake. This is what he had spent most of his life doing…

Breaking into a run, it didn't take Camri long to activate the trap. He stood on a concealed trigger stone which caused the sluice at the top of the citadel's wall to open. Thick, gooey lava began to ooze out, filling the funnel beneath it and making its way down into the network of pipes and troughs, beginning a convoluted path down to the arched doorway.

Camri knew this was going to happen. He didn't let it break his pace. Every few steps he would trip another trigger stone, but he was quick, almost instinctive in his dodging of the traps. He dived into a forward roll under a razor-sharp crossbow bolt which blasted out of a wall recess, and leapt gracefully forwards as an entire section of the pathway quickly receded back into the wall. He ducked under head-chopping blades as he dived into the tunnelled section where the path burrowed into the cavern wall, but no sooner had he done so than several pendulum-like blades began to swing across the tunnel.

Ariel, following close behind him, dealt with the threat. She used telekinesis to halt the blades at the lowest point of their swing, leaving them dangling harmlessly in the middle of the tunnel. She did the same as a mace-like spiked ball attached to the end of a chain swung down from a shadowy hole as Camri exited the tunnel.

By now, the lava was most of the way down its course to blocking off the door into the Refuge, but only one obstacle lay between them – the tunnel that led below the lava's surface. Camri bolted down the stairwell that led into the tunnel and stopped at its base. He noticed round metal trapdoors in the tunnel's roof, and that the floor had been carved from individual slabs. He bent down more carefully to examine the floor…

"Camri…" Hermione said nervously, eyeing the falling lava.

He stood up and turned to face the other two.

"_Exactly _where I stand," he repeated. He had noticed that while some of the floor slabs were completely separate from the tunnel, others were constructed into it, hewn from the same rock. They were the safe stones.

Camri danced across the tunnel, avoiding the trigger stones, and Hermione followed close behind him. Camri waited at the other end of the tunnel for the other two to catch up – Hermione didn't miss a step, and carried on running for the Refuge.

Ariel raced down the stairs but tripped as she neared the bottom, falling over and landing clumsily and painfully on her elbows and knees. But as she landed, in a sickening moment she felt the floor slightly sink downwards, and heard a loud 'Clack!' above her as a catch was released and one of the round metal trapdoors slid open. Thick strands of lava began to ooze through the hole.

This was it.

No spell or telekinetic action could stop the lava…

Suddenly, a powerful grip clamped around her wrist and dragged her to safety, fractions of a second before the lava cascaded onto the stone floor where she had been lying.

"C'mon!" Camri said gruffly, dragging her to her feet and leaping over the other trigger stones.

"_Camri! The lava!" _a voice called from further up. It was Hermione, now standing in the safety of the arched doorway.

"I know…" Camri said through gritted teeth. It was less than twenty yards to safety, but the lava was seconds away from completing its journey through the channels. It was a simple mathematical truth – it was going to be close.

As fast as they possibly could, Camri Everlight and Ariel Lasaille sprinted towards the archway. But, injured in her fall, Ariel soon began to flag, her pace slowing. But then, Camri shoved her powerfully from behind, to be caught in Hermione's arms, before he dived forwards into the tunnel, a mere second before a waterfall of lava cascaded over the doorway, flooding the forecourt in seconds.

"How are we going to get out?" Hermione asked.

"We'll worry about that later," Camri said. "All I know is that by setting off that trap, we've made life very difficult for those Dunmer bastards who are behind us somewhere. Are you alright, Ariel?"

Ariel nodded, breathing deeply as she cast a healing spell on herself. "I've missed this, in a way…"

Glancing back, Camri saw that their way out was completely cut off by a curtain of lava, which was now beginning to creep along the stone floor towards them.

"Anything we should know about, Ariel?"

Ariel quickly cast a life-detection spell. "Nothing inside"

She began to turn around then froze. "They're right behind us!"


	2. Chapter 2

The ten Dunmer agents moved quickly and precisely. They didn't speak, communicating only with hand signals. They were dressed in jet-black from head to toe, masks wrapped around the lower halves of their faces and hoods pulled across their heads. They all carried identical armaments, ebony shortswords and glinting Dwarven crossbows – weapons ideally suited for fighting in close quarters. Several of the agents carried other items; items that would help them overcome Capstone Cave's traps.

They navigated the pathway in no time, dodging the traps until they reached the submerged section, by now half-flooded with lava and still filling. But then two of the agents heaved into place a plank-like bridge made from adamantium, the lightweight and incredibly tough metal mined only in parts of their native Morrowind. At the far end of this bridge, another was slid into place to allow safe passage across the lava flooding the forecourt. Finally, a collapsible adamantium awning was assembled and placed underneath the waterfall of lava – the molten rock cascaded off the sides of the saddle-shaped awning, allowing safe passage beneath it.

No more than thirty second after the agents had entered the lava chamber, they had defeated its traps and were entering Melethar's Refuge.

"Stay close" Camri whispered loudly. "Whatever knowledge we find in here might be the only thing that keeps us alive"

The three raced down the tunnel and it wasn't long before they arrived in the inside of the Refuge. It was a three-tiered structure, made from concentric cylinder-shaped chambers that led into each other, with walkways running around the edges of the smaller upper two levels and stairwells allowing access to the upper levels. Scattered around the edges of the room were ancient stone slabs with crumbling skeletons resting on them, ceremonial burial gifts still draped across their body bodies. And there, in the centre of the Refuge, was a stone plinth with a tattered leather-bound book lying on it.

As they stepped in, Camri pointed out another wide but thin trigger stone, almost completely invisible, which ran in a semicircle around the entrance to the Refuge.

Ariel wasted no time in running over to the book, but Camri glanced at one of the ancient skeletons. He spotted the glow of an enchantment radiating on the stone slab it lay on, and reached underneath the ceremonial silver cuirass it had been buried in.

"Nice," he said, drawing out a Daedric dagger which shone with a pale blue light. The frost enchantment was so strong that the dagger even felt slightly cold to the touch.

Ariel picked up the old book and began to leaf through it, her mind taking in everything that she saw at an incredible rate…

"Drop it!" a gruff voice shouted. Ariel snapped the book shut and dropped it, more in surprise than as a response to the order.

Before they knew it, the three were surrounded by ten Dunmer men, clad in black, all pointing crossbows at their heads. Then, a pale green bolt of magic burst out from the left hand of one of the Dunmer, engulfing Ariel before she could react and silencing her. Their only possible form of defence, Ariel's incredible telekinetic skill, was gone.

The Dunmer who had ordered Ariel to drop the book strode over to her and picked it up. Through his mask, Ariel could see that he was older than the others, with narrow eyes, creased in a way that could only have come from a lifetime of frowning at people.

"Commander Aryon" the Dunmer said formally to one of the other soldiers. With his crossbow still levelled at Hermione's head, the Dunmer called Aryon strode over to take the book and began to leaf through it. He paused briefly on one page near the back, and then nodded.

The senior Dunmer turned to face Ariel, Camri and Hermione. "Well, it looks like we are now one step ahead of you in this race. Rest assured that the nation of Morrowind _will _find the Capstone before anyone else"

Then, a lick of flame spat out of the man's hands, igniting the book. He dropped it and watched as, in a few seconds, it burned to nothing but a pile of cinders and charred leather.

"If you try to follow us we will kill you," the Dunmer said. With that, his men began to file backwards out of the room, their weapons still trained on the three. The older man left last of all, stamping on the trigger stone inside the doorway as he did so, then quickly ran to keep up with his men, never once lowering his crossbow.

As soon as the Elf had stepped on the trigger stone, four circular portals in the wall of the refuge opened and a putrid-smelling amber-coloured liquid began to flow from them.

"Acid" Hermione said flatly. "We're fucked"

"No we're not!" Camri said determinedly, bolting for one of the stairwells that led to the higher levels of the Refuge. The other two followed him, Ariel quickly making it to the other stairwell and Hermione close behind her, reaching the stairwell just before a wave of acid washed across the floor. Turning round, Hermione saw the remains of the book being consumed by the acid – they dissolved into nothing in seconds.

The three soon congregated on the second level of the Refuge.

"You think we can get out?" Hermione asked.

"I'm hoping for one of two things," Camri said. "One is a route up to those guard towers we saw on the outside wall of the Refuge. The other is a reset for the traps"

"A what?" Ariel asked.

Hermione nodded. "A common feature in a lot of sacred chambers. Melethar wouldn't have been able to get in here to leave that book without setting the traps off. He must have reset them somehow. But what's the use? The best that can happen is we catch up with those Dunmer agents, and we can't beat them in a fight…"

"We can once that spell wears off, and if we can catch them by surprise" Camri said.

"Or we could lie low," Ariel said. "I know where they're going next – if we can get there before them…"

"What?" Camri and Hermione both exclaimed at once, turning to face Ariel.

"I didn't see much of that text, but one word stood out – Fanacas. From its name it sounds Ayleid…"

"Yes, it's a ruin in the mountains north of Cheydinhal" Camri said. "Right, come on, we're back in the game!"

Camri raced up another stairwell, this time leading into the wall of the Refuge, and suddenly emerged on the top of its outer wall. He crouch-ran over to the battlements, hoping to see the Dunmer agents making their escape, but his vision was cut off by a thick plume of smoky gas. As soon as he breathed, his lungs and throat began to burn. He coughed violently and reached for his water bottle.

"The acid must have hit the lava," Hermione explained, wrapping a cloth around her face as Ariel pulled up the hood on her robe. "It's vapourised it"

Then, Camri pulled something out of his backpack, one of the tools of his trade – a length of lightweight but super-strong Elven rope.

"Is this plan as mad as I think it is?" Ariel asked.

"Hell yeah!" Camri replied. "Any cover you could provide would be much appreciated"

As the smoke began to dissipate, Hermione and Camri whipped up their bows and fired, striking two Dunmer agents in their backs as they ran into the tunnelled section of the path leading around the lava lake. As they both tumbled forwards, three others spun round and pulled up their crossbows, firing up at the battlements, but the three just ducked behind them as the bolts clanged harmlessly against the stone walls. As they reloaded, Camri tied one end of the rope around one of the battlements and the other around his waist then leapt off the battlements, gripping onto the rope just tightly enough to let it slip quickly through the fingers of his leather gloves. As he abseiled down the wall, a volley of crossbow bolts was fired from the Dunmer agents, but the weapons had a limited range, designed for fighting in close quarters. Two of the bolts hit him, but having flown across the room in a parabolic arc they carried little momentum and didn't penetrate his miraculously strong mithril coat. But then, two of the Dunmer agents ran back towards the sunken section of the path, now completely filled with lava, to get a clearer shot.

_Thwack! _

One of the agents was struck in the shoulder by an arrow from Hermione, and fell screaming into the pool of lava, being consumed in an instant. As the other drew his crossbow up to fire at Camri, now within lethal range, Camri pulled out the enchanted Daedric dagger he had found in the Refuge and threw it overarm. His aim was immaculate, and it thudded straight into the Dunmer's heart, the powerful icy enchantment killing him before he knew what had happened.

As Camri neared the base of the wall, a few feet above the adamantium awning the Dunmer had erected to get past the lava waterfall, he kicked powerfully against it, sending him swinging out over the cavern. He let go of the rope, whose slack was still tied around his waist, and landed on the pathway in front of two very surprised Dunmer agents. They quickly pulled up their crossbows and fired, but Camri dived to his feet and heard the bolts shooting over his head. Before he got up, he grabbed a discarded - but loaded – crossbow from the body of a fallen enemy and fired it at point-blank range at one of the other agents. The bolt hit the Dunmer square between the eyes and caused his head to burst like a watermelon. Camri winced then leapt to his feet, whipping up his shield just in time to block a colossal blow from the agent's ebony shortsword, and then plunged his own blade deep into his adversary's abdomen.

As Camri reached the tunnel, he suddenly realised that he couldn't pass through it for his escape plan to work, so with no other option he began free-climbing across the wall of the cavern, a mere two feet above the pool of lava. He prayed Hermione was looking out for him…

She was. A Dunmer agent raised a crossbow and fired, but Hermione had got off her shot maybe a fraction of a second earlier, her arrow striking the Dunmer in the chest just as he fired his crossbow, making the shot go wide, high up into the air, as the Dunmer tumbled backwards, clutching at his chest.

_Five down… _Camri thought to himself as he leapt back onto terra firma and raced towards the tunnel that led out of the Refuge.

"Alright! Go!" he called back up to the other two as he stood near the entrance of the tunnel, pulling the rope taut with one hand and brandishing his sword with the other.

High up on the battlements, Hermione slung her bow over her shoulder then took her fur jacket off, rolling it up then hooking it over the length of rope that now ran between the battlements and Camri.

"Hold on tight," she said to Ariel, who wrapped her arms tightly around her as the climbed over the battlements. Hermione kicked the pair away from the wall, and they began sliding down the quickly-fashioned flying fox at tremendous speed.

As Camri tensely watched, holding onto the rope as tightly as he could, he saw two more Dunmer agents emerging from the tunnel. One lunged at him with a sword, but Camri was quick to deflect the blow and return one of his own, cutting a deep gash in the Dunmer's left arm, but the agent simply gritted his teeth and began hacking wildly at Camri. As Camri parried the blows, he saw the other agent race past him, aim his crossbow at the flying fox and fire…

Camri couldn't watch.

But then, a second later, the agent was sent flying backwards as a star-shaped explosion of blood burst from his forehead.

The silencing spell enveloping Ariel had worn off at about the same time that the agent had fired his crossbow. As quick as a flash, Ariel halted the flight of the bolt with telekinesis. Then, she had spun it around in mid-air then propelled it faster than any crossbow could straight into the fiend who had fired it in the first place.

The other Dunmer agent, mouth agape at the amazing spectacle, had let his guard down. Camri plunged his sword straight through the Dunmer's throat, killing him, just as Hermione and Ariel's feet touched the ground.

"That was pretty bloody impressive, Camri," Hermione said. "You too, Ariel"

Camri patted Hermione on the shoulder. "Thanks for covering me. But I think we took too long"

"What do you mean?"

"We only killed seven of them," Ariel observed.

"Exactly" Camri said. "Those two that came back out of the tunnel were sent back to hold us up. I don't see the old boy in the dead bodies anywhere, or the one called Commander Aryon who read about Fanacas in the book"

"Can we catch them up?" Hermione asked.

Camri shook his head. "I doubt it. And we won't have the element of surprise this time. I suggest we just get to Fanacas before them. They're not from round here – they'll travel on the roads. Far from the most direct route. We can head cross-country from here to Cheydinhal, pick up a bit of help then head north to Fanacas"

"Help?" Ariel asked.

Camri nodded. "It just so happens that a very good friend of ours now lives in Cheydinhal"


	3. Chapter 3

It had been a stroke of luck that had led to the three new members that now joined Camri Everlight, Ariel Lasaille and Hermione Barca. The elderly Breton man and the young, skinny High Elf may not have looked like much, but the other Breton with them, kitted out in a suit of ebony armour and with long, grey hair and a huge bushy beard, looked a formidable war wizard – which he was. Captain Larand Pasqual was the man in charge of the Imperial Battlemages, the elite spellsword guards tasked with the protecting of the Arcane University. They were a formidable force, essentially the Arch-Mage's private army. Pasqual, though, was in a similar position to Camri – on something he referred to in his own circles as a babysitting job. Ariador was a student at the University, currently in the field studying the effects of climate – temperature, humidity, frequencies of variation in weather – on enchantments and objects such as soul gems. The three had spotted them in the woodland just outside Cheydinhal and it had not taken much persuasion to get them to join their quest.

The last member of the group, though, was a more unusual addition. He ran with a permanent hunch, his slight figure buried beneath a brown robe, but he was sharp-witted and had the eyes of a trained field agent – or a spy. Camri and Ariel were two of the very few people who knew his whereabouts, after the dissolution of the Empire had forced the Blades to disband. Their old Grandmaster, Jauffre, now lived in a modest house in Cheydinhal, but old habits died hard. He still had two fingers on the pulse of the shadier goings-on around Tamriel.

Jauffre had spoken little until the group were well out of earshot of Cheydinhal and its surrounding estates and hamlets. He spoke to Camri as they ran.

"Camri, I must tell you. The Imperial Legion are showing interest in the Capstone. I don't know how far down the trail they are towards finding it – they may not know of the Refuge's significance, and by the sounds of it they won't find anything there now anyway…"

"We should not ignore them though," Camri replied. "How did you find out?"

"They contacted me, to see if I knew anything. Of course, I did, but I didn't tell them that, and there was nothing more they could do. I do not answer to them anymore"

At that moment, Camri realised that Jauffre had held information from the Imperial Legion so he could pass it on to him and Ariel. He was a good friend.

"What about the Dunmer?" Captain Pasqual asked. "What's their involvement in this?"

"To do that, you need to think about the current political situation in Morrowind. After the death of Vivec and the failing of the Ingenium was the disaster where the Ministry of Truth, the floating prison above Vivec city…"

"I'm familiar with it," Camri said, recalling a daring raid on the Ministry to free a falsely imprisoned member of the Blades.

"Anyway, it crashed from the heavens, devastating the whole island of Vvardenfell through a flurry of seismic activity. Tsunamis careered across the Inland Sea and obliterated all the fishing and harbour towns scattering the coast of the mainland.

"Then, of course, the nation of Argonia decides it would be a good time to exact revenge on Morrowind for the years of slavery they have had to endure at the hands of the Dark Elves. You must remember that most Dunmer genuinely view the Argonians as a lesser race, as beasts. But they were no beasts when they formed enormous raiding parties and marched across the border. First, they ransacked the town of Tear, freeing every captive from its notorious open-air slave pens, many of whom joined their invasion. Now, they have the capital city of Mournhold surrounded and besieged"

"And if the Dunmer get the Capstone…" Camri began. Captain Pasqual finished his sentence.

"If what you have told me of the Capstone is true, they can use it as an infinite fuel source to create and feed enchantments. They will defeat the Argonians through sheer strength of arms"

"And probably have a go at Black Marsh, and maybe Cyrodiil and Skyrim while they're at it," Jauffre added.

"Alright, what about the Imperial Legion?" Camri asked.

"I suspect, well I hope, that they want it for the same reason that we do, to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. The question, of course, is who tasked them with finding it"

Camri shrugged. "This is happening too quickly. I expect we won't find out until we – or someone else – find the Capstone. What does the Cartography have to say about Fanacas?"

"Quite a small, isolated ruin," Jauffre said. "Believed to be abandoned, and to originally be a mountain retreat or burial temple for an Ayleid noble of some sort"

"A perfect place to hide the Capstone" Ariador, the young Elven mage, said suddenly. The others all turned to look at him expectantly.

"One thing I have discovered in my studies is that cold is the best way of preserving enchantments. All enchanted items have a residual leak of energy over time. Often it is slow enough to barely be noticeable, but if an enchanted item is not used for a few years it will eventually drain of charge. But low temperatures seem to preserve this effect – it's why perfectly-functioning enchanted items are always found buried deep underground in ruins and mines"

Camri smiled at Ariador. "I'm glad we brought you along, young man"

Ariador nodded subtly at Camri. The message was clear. _There's something else I must tell you._

As Camri Everlight stood before the remains of the entrance to Fanacas, he visualised what it would have looked like in its heyday, as he often did with Ayleid ruins. A squat door burrowed into the mountainside, surrounded by a few ruined archways and a statue of Auri-El, the Ayleid interpretation of Akatosh. He pictured Fanacas as a remote hilltop temple or shrine of some sort – the perfect place to hide treasure. Behind him, the Jerall foothills sloped steeply back towards Cheydinhal. The wind was bitingly cold. North of him, an open, alpine wilderness stretched all the way to southern Skyrim. Very few would venture up here.

"Right then, let's see what we can find," Camri said as he shoved the stone door open with his shoulder.

"I'll keep watch," Captain Pasqual said. "Keep an eye on the entry hall for flares"

Camri nodded. "I'm hoping not to be in there very long"

Leading with night-eye, sword held in his right hand, Camri Everlight proceeded into Fanacas. The narrow doorway opened into a narrow but tall tunnel, huge cracks torn in its walls by the cold, by freeze-thaw erosion. High above him, an iron lattice held a rough clump of Welkynd glass, bathing the tunnel in an eerie cyan glow. A thick coating of dust on the floor betrayed the fact that no-one had set foot in this entrance hall for a long time.

Ariel peered around behind him, searching her vision for the telltale purple haze of life that her spell betrayed. She could see nothing but one patch of purple in front of her – Camri – and three behind her, the signatures of Hermione, Ariador and Jauffre.

Camri stopped at the end of the tunnel. It branched off in a crossroads – ahead of them, the path ended abruptly at a balcony which overlooked a huge chamber, lit by Welkynd crystals and partially flooded. The water was crystal clear and he could see that it was about ten feet deep.

"The Ayleid obsession with flooded chambers has never really been understood," Hermione whispered. "Many believe it to be purely decorative"

"Or a crack in the wall let in groundwater," Camri added. "Perhaps it was not meant to be flooded at all"

"You two can write a book about Ayleid architecture after we've found the Capstone," Jauffre snapped. "Looks like there's only one way, anyway"

Camri turned around. Jauffre was right. The path leading to the right from the crossroads was blocked by an iron gate – on the other side, tantalisingly out of arm's reach, was a trigger stone which clearly operated the gate.

"If we could find something heavy enough, I could move it onto the trigger stone…" Ariel suggested.

"No, let's see where they're sending us," Camri said. "This is just like Melethar's Refuge, designed to reward those that are worthy. I think Fanacas is either one giant trap or one giant puzzle"

"That's reassuring," Ariel sighed. Before she could object, Camri began to stride down the one open path, and she scurried after him. The other three followed close behind…

"Shit!" Camri shouted suddenly. No sooner had he done so than a massive _Clang! _echoed through Fanacas as another iron gate thundered down, blocking the tunnel they were travelling down. He quickly took stock of the situation. The gate had fallen between Ariel and Hermione – Camri and Ariel were stuck on one side, Hermione, Jauffre and Ariador on the other.

"Doesn't look like there's anything to open it…" Ariel said, glancing around the gate.

"Hidden trigger stone" Camri said to himself behind her, identifying the cause of what had made the gate seal off the tunnel. He had felt the floor receding slightly beneath his boots and known that he had set something off.

Hermione strode up to the barred gate to meet Camri. "Now what?"

"Sit tight," Camri replied. "I think the route through Fanacas is circular. It ends at that other gate. I'll be back soon, hopefully with the Capstone"

"What if the Dunmer arrive?" Jauffre asked. "Or the Imperial Legion?"

Camri said nothing, but his look said it all. _Just keep praying that they don't._

"Camri, let me come with you," Ariel said suddenly. She was right - Camri knew he was bound to have need of her magical abilities at some point.

"Of course," Camri replied. "Stay safe, the rest of you. We won't be long"

The pair ran off down the only open route into Fanacas, Camri leading, still not needing a torch thanks to the constant diffused glow coming from the Welkynd stones that lined the walls.

"There must be thousands of drakes' worth of Welkynd glass in this tunnel alone," Camri remarked. "There has to be something good in here"

As they followed the tunnel, it rounded a few corners then emerged on a walkway above the large pool of water that lay in the centre of Fanacas. From the other side of the pool_, _Hermione waved over at them.

_"Found that way through yet, Camri?"_

"Working on it," Camri replied through clenched teeth. The walkway ahead of him was peppered with a few traps, familiar on many similar trails he had seen in Ayleid ruins. Falling blade traps. Huge razor-sharp horizontal blades hung suspended from the ceiling, ready to fall on any unsuspecting adventurer. They would kill anyone caught underneath them instantly. But Camri just stepped carefully forwards until just before he stood beneath each blade, where he located the trigger stone and stamped on it, causing the blade to crash down from its mountings with a resounding boom that echoed through the whole ruin. Then, he used the miraculously sharp blade of his glass sword to simply slice through the chains that pulled each blade back up into its recess - the metal was old and corroded and yielded easily.

Soon, the pair were safely across the walkway, where it plunged into a tunnel out of the flooded chamber and further into the depths of the ruin.

"So let me get this right," Ariador said as Hermione watched the other two disappearing into another darkened tunnel. "There's not one but two groups of soldiers bearing down on this ruin right now, and they're not on our side?"

"I'm not sure whose side we are on" Jauffre remarked.

"You're right," Hermione replied. "But as Jauffre said, the Legion are not necessarily hostile towards us. Camri served with them once, after all, and has fought alongside them many times..."

"Nothing the Legion hates more than a deserter," Jauffre said.

"...and only three of the Dunmer agents left Melethar's Refuge alive," Hermione continued, ignoring Jauffre's comment. "If they arrive any time soon, we can assume they haven't had chance to gather any greater numbers"

"I hope you're right..." Ariador said nervously. "Listen, if we have been split up from Camri and Ariel, there's something I have to tell you both"

Hermione and Jauffre turned to look at him expectantly.

"Sigil stones function in a very similar way to the Varla and Welkynd stones found in ruins like these - they are simply coalesced Daedric energy as opposed to Aedric. They release a large quantity of magicka but in a finely-tuned way, hence their ability to produce enchantments. But if you physically _break _a Sigil stone..."

"They go bang" Jauffre said. "Happened in Cloud Ruler Temple once, nearly blew the damn doors off the place..."

"Exactly! So if you don't want anyone to get hold of the Capstone, the option is there..."

"But surely if the Capstone is physically larger than common Sigil stones, destroying it will produce a cataclysmic explosion?" Hermione asked.

"Maybe, but from my research I think that merely cracking a magical stone such as a Varla or Sigil stone, rather than outright splitting it into pieces, will cause it to release its energy much slower, not in a useable way but at least in a safe way"


	4. Chapter 4

Camri Everlight glanced all around him as he ran into a large, open chamber, again illuminated with a diffuse blue glow by Welkynd glass, only now its light was getting more intense. They were getting close to something...

_Bang!_

Without warning, a portcullis clattered down, sealing off the tunnel they had emerged from into the room. The pair stopped dead in their tracks.

"Another trap?" Ariel asked.

Camri looked nervous. "I didn't feel any trigger stones... Look, the floor's completely flat"

"So someone else did that?"

Camri nodded. "I can only hope it was one of the others pissing around with trap mechanisms. If you look hard enough you can always find the workings to the gates and traps in these places..."

Footfalls suddenly began to echo through the chamber. Many of them. Instinctively, Camri pulled his bow off his shoulder and loaded it. "How many?" he asked Ariel.

"Five, six... No, a few more, approaching from the right..."

"Keep your head down" Camri said evenly, training his bow on another tunnel that led off from the side of the chamber. He briefly lowered the weapon, hoping that whoever was about to emerge from the tunnel was friendly...

They weren't. A Wood Elf burst out of the tunnel and fired a longbow at Camri, but the arrow's flight was suddenly halted yards away from him by Ariel, who used telekinesis to stop the arrow and let it fall to the ground. At the same time, Camri discharged his own bow, nailing the marksman square between the eyes.

"More of that would be good, Ariel" Camri said through gritted teeth, loading another arrow. Much to his surprise, a flame atronach emerged next, flanked by two men wielding longswords. As Camri tried to comprehend what was happening, a wave of fire roared towards him from the atronach's hands. Grabbing Ariel by the arm, he dragged her out of the fireball's path, then hurriedly pulled his bow up and fired, striking the atronach in the chest. It disappeared in a flash of orange light - summoned.

"Camri..." Ariel whimpered as the two other men, an Imperial and a Nord, began to charge towards them.

"I know!" Camri replied, dropping his bow to the ground and drawing his sword and shield. Only as he did this did he notice more movement coming from the tunnel, but he didn't have time to try and work out who it was. Throwing up his sword and shield, he blocked blade attacks from the two soldiers, but was thrown backwards as something struck his shield, hard, almost knocking it out of his hand. But then, he saw a blur of movement flash by over his shoulder and suddenly the Imperial man toppled over backwards, an arrow jutting from his neck. It took Camri a few seconds to realise it, but Ariel had taken an arrow out of his quiver and lunged forwards, stabbing it like a dagger into the man's jugular vein.

The Nord swung at Camri, hard, with his sword, but Camri managed to block the blow with his own blade. He felt the Nord trying to force Camri's sword from his hands - the opponent was extremely strong, and Camri felt his shoulder begin to give way, when he noticed something from the corner of his eye. Something embedded in his shield, the object that had struck it earlier. It looked like a crossbow bolt...

"Have your mate's fucking arrow back" Camri said to himself as he suddenly rammed his shield into the Nord's face. The shaft of the bolt gruesomely punctured through his eye and straight into his brain, killing him before he could comprehend what had happened.

Camri and Ariel took deep breaths and looked up, only to see three Dunmer, clad completely in black, with crossbows trained at their heads. Only then did Ariel turn to Camri, holding something in her hands. It was a tiny silver dart, its tip covered in a mixture of blood and a pale-green poison.

"I pulled it out of my leg" Ariel said meekly. "I didn't even feel it hitting me..."

"Three guesses what that poison has done. Can you cast spells?"

Ariel shook her head. "It's not silencing. Some sort of magicka block..."

The pair did the only thing they could and surrendered, Camri dropping his sword to the ground.

One of the Dunmer began to approach the pair, ripping his mask off as he did so. They recognised him instantly - the same wizened, scowling face of the leader of the group of agents they had encountered in Melethar's Refuge.

"Camri Everlight, Ariel Lasaille, I don't believe we were ever introduced" the Dunmer said evenly. "My name is Amador Herelas, representative of the nation of Morrowind"

"The rulers of Morrowind are friends of ours," Camri retorted. "I doubt they ordered you to leave us for dead in Melethar's Refuge"

"Maybe not, but they ordered me to find the Capstone, regardless of what gets in the way. I realise that you are no fool, Camri. I knew you and your rabble would turn up in Fanacas sooner or later. We've been waiting in here for you, to make sure we remain our lead in this race"

With that, he looked at the pair with murderous intent. Camri was disgusted, knowing that Amador was only stalling before he killed them.

"After you stopped off in either Cheydinhal or Bruma to recruit mercenaries," Camri said. "You suffered heavy losses in Melethar's Refuge"

"Your escape was lucky. Rest assured, we will find the Capstone in this ruin, and we will use it for the glory of our nation"

"Let me guess, you plan to use its power to raise an army to invade Black Marsh with" Ariel said.

"Commander Aryon was serving with Morrowind's army before I recruited him into my party," Amador said, beckoning over one of his other men. The pair recognised the name from the clash in Melethar's Refuge.

"I have seen what the Argonians have brought upon our nations" Commander Aryon said, his voice husky, weary. "They plundered our towns, burned them to the ground. They murdered our men, violated our women and kidnapped our children into slavery. The nation of Morrowind was on its knees after the disaster in Vivec, and the opportunistic bastards are committing these atrocities while we try to piece things back together. Every last one of those fucking lizards deserves a sword through their heart"

"The Capstone should be left alone" Camri said sternly. "Its power is too great for one nation to wield. Absolute power causes absolute corruption"

Amador strode up to Camri, stopping inches from his face. "And you really think you can talk me out of our nation's decision?

"I know more about you than you can possibly realise, Camri Everlight. I know exactly how many people have died whilst fighting for one of your causes. One of my own countrymen was killed in Elsweyr when you left him for dead. And I know that this haunts you to the day"

Camri's heart thumped in his throat. _How could Amador possibly know that? _

"You have a lot of blood on your hands, Camri, and I know that you only need one more little push to send you over the edge. I'm sure that you would grieve for the loss of that Imperial bitch you have with you, or the two old men, or that boy who is tagging along, but there is one person whose death I know would cut you to the core. I'm sure you have something up your sleeve to get yourself out of this situation, but rest assured, when I am finished here your spirits and determination will be so shattered that you will not even be able to bring yourself to leave this room"

Then, Amador turned to Commander Aryon, his crossbow (and that of the third Dunmer agent) still trained on him. "Commander, kill the Breton"

"As you wish," Aryon said coldly, stepping up to Ariel.

"Camri!" Ariel cried. Camri reached across and gripped her hand, but a wave of Amador's crossbow soon separated them again.

_Not like this... _Camri thought to himself.

"Will you honour one wish?" Ariel asked shakily, turning to face Amador. He nodded curtly. "Let Camri turn around. I do not want him to see this"

Camri took a deep breath and spun so he was facing the barricaded tunnel they had entered the chamber from. He could hear his heart pounding quickly in his chest.

"On your knees, Breton" Aryon barked.

Camri closed his eyes and waited.

All of a sudden, bright white light assaulted his eyes. It lasted only for a second or two, but even through his screwed-shut eyelids it dazzled him. Then, he felt a familiar grip on his wrist, the soft touch of a hand, then an even more familiar one - the hilt of his glass longsword being placed into his right hand. Opening his eyes, he spun round, just in time to see Ariel holding a crossbow to Amador Herelas' head, as he writhed around on the ground, his hands gripped around his eyes.

In the split-second before Amador had ordered her execution, Ariel had felt something inside her. A sudden surge of magicka. The poison had worn off, so she did the only thing she could to incapacitate the Dunmer all at once. As soon as Camri had turned his back on her, she had unleashed an incredibly bright sun-like burst of light. It had been powerful enough to permanently blind the three Dunmer agents.

Without remorse, Camri drove his sword through Commander Aryon's chest, who was also lying on the floor curled up in a foetal position, then drew his bow and fired an arrow into the head of the third Dunmer agent.

Then, he strolled over to Amador and took the crossbow from Ariel. The Dunmer agent opened his eyes but saw nothing, yet they still carried a look of shock, and of utter defeat.

"Do you think he knows anything we don't?" Camri asked Ariel.

"No, he started the trail at the same place as us, remember?"

"Amador Herelas, perhaps your wishes to lead your people to victory against the Argonians are justified. But you tried to kill my best friend, and that is one sin for which I cannot forgive you"

With that, Camri depressed the trigger on the crossbow and fired it straight into the bridge of Amador's nose. His head exploded like a watermelon, spraying bone and blood across the floor of the chamber.

Then, Camri dropped the crossbow to the floor and put an arm around Ariel. "Are you alright?"

Ariel leaned into his embrace and nodded. She smiled, but Camri could see something else in her. He knew that danger had stalked her for her entire life, and much as she loved adventuring with Camri, she had thought she was about to die too many times.

"Good thinking with the light show," Camri said reassuringly, holding her tighter. Then, he took a small phial of potion off his belt and handed it to her. "Here, drink this. If people are going to play dirty we need to be prepared. I can't be doing without your magic"

"What is it?" Ariel asked before taking a gulp of the substance.

"Antivenom and magic resistance, tuned to the magicka of illusion spells, to stop that old silencing trick happening again"

"Thanks. Now what?"

Camri paced across the chamber, his bootfalls echoing. "If Amador and his thugs found anything they certainly didn't show it. I think they hit a dead end and they've just been waiting for us to turn up. Let's at least try and find our way back to the others"

"What do you think about what Commander Aryon said, Camri?" Ariel asked. "It sounds like the situation in Morrowind is dire"

"And it will be even more dire if the Dunmer can arm themselves to the teeth with superenchanted devices," Camri replied.

"But the Argonian raiding parties massacring innocent civilians..."

Camri turned to Ariel and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Ariel, I know it was over quickly but you must have realised what just happened. They were going to let me go, but kill you just to break my spirits. I have no sympathy for anyone who would perform an act as evil as that. You've seen what I will go to to get back at anyone who even lays a finger on you"

Ariel nodded and smiled weakly.

"But if it helps, when this is over we can go and pay a visit to King Jararka and persuade him that bloodshed may not be his best option"

Camri and Ariel were both very close to the Argonians - indeed, they were both honourary members of the Royal Court of Black Marsh and counted its King as a personal friend. The very quest that had drawn the two of them together had been an oddly prophetic saga where they had raced to find an ancient weapon that would help the Argonians repel a massive Imperial Legion invasion of their lands, led by a corrupt general.

Some things never changed.

_Valus foothills, north of Cheydinhal_

A man raced through the undergrowth, terrified and lost, his pursuers close behind him. Imperial Foresters. They'd picked up his trail almost as soon as he'd left Cheydinhal and he'd be damned if he could shake them. Ahead of him loomed the northern Valus Mountains, the colossal peak of Dive Rock dominating the landscape. Above the dense treeline, the peaks were covered in thick snow. And somewhere in that wilderness, he had to find the remains of an Ayleid ruin.

The enemy was bearing down on him from all directions.

He pulled his blue hood over his head and carried on.

His name was Tarric, a Redguard from the Arcane University, a high-ranking Imperial Battlemage. That said, his magic skills weren't particularly adept, but his combat skills were. Disciplined in swordsmanship and blunt weapons and highly skilled in both, he was strong, agile and level-headed. Captain Pasqual was glad to have him under his command.

Suddenly, instinctively, he dived to the ground as an arrow whistled over his head and thudded into a nearby tree. He wasted no time in leaping to his feet and breaking into a sprint.

_The bastards have caught up with me, _he thought. _Corrupt, green-hooded bastards..._

He still could not believe that the Imperial Foresters were hunting him. He was a Battlemage, part of the Imperial Legion and the Guild of Mages. He knew little of the background to his quest, only that a clandestine web of allegiances was involved. Whose side was Arch-Mage Onstario really on? And more to the point, whose side were the people he was trying to find on?

Tarric froze. He could see a figure in front of him, holding a bow aloft. The figure motioned for him to duck. Tarric obliged, and the mysterious assailant fired its weapon. The arrow shot over Tarric's head and was shortly followed by a damp thud and a brief yelp of pain.

"Get over here!" the figure whispered loudly. Tarric placed his accent as Dunmer. He got to his feet and raced for his saviour as he discharged another arrow, striking down a second Forester.

Tarric reached the Dunmer and spun round, a bolt of lightning lancing from his right hand. For the first time in a while, he saw his pursuers. There were only three left now, and one fell to the ground, roaring in pain as the lightning bolt struck his thigh.

"Don't worry, I'm with you," the Dunmer said. "The Arch-Mage sent me to find you when he realised exactly what you're up against"

"Tell me about it" Tarric replied. "I got the whole fucking Legion on me..."

"Not quite. Most of them are still marshalling in Bruma and Cheydinhal. We've got a bit of time..."

The Dunmer stopped to take aim and fire, hitting a Forester a split-second before he fired his own bow, the arrow shooting up high into the sky. But then, as the Dunmer reached for another arrow, Tarric shoved him roughly to the ground. An arrow whistled overhead. Had Tarric not reacted quickly enough, it would have struck the Dunmer right in the throat.

"Thanks," the Dunmer said, leaping to his feet. The fall had snapped the arrow he had been holding, but rather than reaching for another he simply set off a fireball which blasted into the bush that the final marksman was hiding behind, incinerating it in seconds. The Forester panicked and raced out into the open, where the Dunmer quickly nailed him with an arrow.

Silence fell across the Valus foothills.

"So who are you exactly?" Tarric asked of the Dunmer.

"My name's Eldred Moravahn," the Dunmer replied. "Freelance spy and adventurer, and good friends with the man you're trying to find, Camri Everlight. You have information for him about the Capstone, do you not?"

Tarric nodded. "You know where to find them?"

"Yes, but we cannot risk heading all the way to Fanacas. We don't know who else they might have bumped into. My own countrymen are in this race too"

"What, there's another way in?"

"Maybe. What I do know is that there's another way out of Fanacas which they will have to use at some point, and I have a fair idea where it emerges"

Tarric took in the Dunmer called Eldred. He was wearing a suit of armour made from boiled netch leather, a material native to Morrowind, draped in rare and valuable weapons of all types. Whoever he was, he meant business.

"Look, there's a lot of people after the Capstone and they're not your run-of-the-mill treasure hunters" Eldred continued. "I don't think the Arcane University realised the full extent of that when they sent you to go and find Camri


	5. Chapter 5

Hermione Barca paced up and down the small corridor she was still stuck in for the umpteenth time. She began to wonder what was taking Camri and Ariel so long, but she trusted them to at least find their way back, and in any case she could not follow them...

Suddenly, there was a loud clattering sound nearby, seeming to come from the ceiling above her. Then, one of the iron gates sealing off every route into Fanacas, the one that had closed when Camri and Ariel had passed through it, slowly lumbered upwards into its recess in the ceiling.

"You think they did that?" Ariador asked her.

"Maybe. I was expecting to see them the other side of that other gate though. Randomly stabbing at levers to see what they do doesn't seem like Camri's behaviour..."

"Oh shit!" Jauffre suddenly gasped, glancing around him. "Life detection just went off the scale round here. How did Ariel miss them the first time?"

"Someone else is in here," Hermione said evenly. "And three guesses where they're going to come from. Ariador, go and fetch Captain Pasqual, quickly..."

Too late.

Hermione reacted with lightning-fast reflexes as she pulled up her bow and fired at a figure that descended from a shadowy alcove high up in the entrance hall. Her arrow struck the assailant in the shoulder and he fell to the ground, landing in a clumsy heap. But he was soon followed by another attacker, leaping cat-like from the same alcove...

The second attacker was dead before he even hit the ground, incinerated by a fireball as he fell. There, stood in the doorway to Fanacas, was Captain Pasqual.

"New friends?" he called.

"Yeah, and there's more where that came from!" Hermione replied. "Get down here quickly!"

"As I was coming inside to tell you," the Captain said as he hustled down the entrance hall, "I've got a raiding party inbound. Spotted them a mile off coming from the Skyrim border. About seven of them, at my count. It's about to get busy in here. Where are Camri and Ariel?"

"Setting off traps as usual," Jauffre said, crouching down by one of the fallen attackers. "And I think this lot have been in here for a while - they're vampires"

At that moment, a loud crash punctured the air as a large section of the ceiling of the entrance hall simply clattered to the ground, its ancient, brittle stone shattering as it did so, and several vampires jumped down the hole left by it into the entrance hall!

Everything happened at once. Captain Pasqual, firing on instincts, cast another fireball into the rabble, taking out one of the vampires as Jauffre pulled an ancient silver longsword off one of the other dead bodies. Meanwhile, Hermione grabbed Ariador by the arm and pushed him out of the firing line, through the gate that had mysteriously opened moments before. It didn't take long before the extent of the situation dawned on them - the vampires had split them up, some forcing Captain Pasqual and Jauffre back up the entrance hall, the rest pursuing Hermione and Ariador through the gate into the depths of Fanacas.

"Stay out of harm's way and you'll be fine," Hermione said to Ariador as she loaded an arrow into her bow. The poor Altmer boy looked terrified. A vampire, an Imperial man, appeared in the gateway with a longbow raised, but Hermione got her shot off first and struck the vampire in the heart.

"Time to let the cavalry in, when they arrive," Hermione said to herself as she reached for another arrow. This time though, she fired it into the closed gate across the hallway. The arrow found one of the gaps between the bars of the iron lattice that made the gate up and clattered to the floor beyond it. Hermione prayed that the heavy Dwarven arrow would have enough weight...

It did. The arrow had landed on the square trigger stone beyond the gate and it rumbled open.

"Nice shot," Ariador said. Then, much to his surprise, Hermione handed her bow to him.

"I'll need some cover"

"What? I can't fire a bow..."

"But they don't know that," Hermione said, tapping her nose with her index finger. "If you do have to fire it, just aim for the head or the chest. You'll be fine. Now - run over to that gate I just opened"

Ariador's face turned as white as a sheet.

"Don't worry, I'll be just behind you. I'm hoping over in that other tunnel we'll bump into Camri and Ariel"

Ariador nodded, took a deep breath and bolted for the other gate. No sooner had he started moving when a Nord vampire appeared before him, but Hermione was just behind him, and he saw a flash of silver whip over his shoulder as a throwing knife thudded into the Nord's head.

"_Get them!" _an inhuman voice cried. This is what Hermione had prepared for.

In a flash of light, a Daedric longsword and shield materialised in her hands. She stood in the entrance hall - four vampires all began to converge on her. A fireball roared from somebody's hands, but Hermione spun around on the spot, her shield deflecting the fireball into the wall, where it burst in a shower of flames. A Dunmer vampire charged at her, wielding a colossal two-handed axe, and heaved it down over his head towards Hermione. She threw up the shield and waited for the jolt.

The impact of the axe almost knocked her off her feet but she stayed up - just. Staggering backwards, she saw the Dunmer coming in for another blow. He raised his axe up above his head, but this time she was prepared. She dived forwards and rammed her sword straight through the Dunmer's throat. The vampire froze, paralysed for a few seconds with his axe still held above his head, before he toppled to the ground. With that, Hermione turned and ran. She could see Captain Pasqual and Jauffre engaged in their own battle further up the entrance hall, and she wanted to split the group of vampires up. She turned right and saw Ariador, still standing with the bow's drawstring pulled back.

"Behind you!" Ariador shouted. Hermione leapt to one side and Ariador released his grip on the bow's drawstring.

The shot was terrible, but it still winged the approaching vampire in the thigh, stopping him dead in his tracks. Hermione smashed the vampire around the head with her shield, knocking him unconscious.

"Hermione!" Ariador shouted. "Just behind me! There's a concealed door! I spotted it when we came in!"

"Get past it!" Hermione said grimly, pushing Ariador further back into the corridor. She spotted it too, a section of wall with a thin seam running around it, and she suspected that they wouldn't be waiting long before it opened.

"Ever think you're getting too old for this?" Jauffre said through gritted teeth.

"All the bloody time" Captain Pasqual replied. Together, the two senior men made an oddly effective team. A whole coven of vampires, at least twenty, seemed to have stormed the entrance hall from the concealed trapdoor, but the pair were holding their ground. Captain Pasqual, in his ebony armour and with his formidable swordsmanship, was a fortress, whilst Jauffre picked his way around whoever Pasqual might be trying to hold off, nimble and fast, taking them down.

"Come on, I'm tired of standing still" Jauffre said, still wielding the sword he had taken from one of the dead vampires. Leaping forwards from behind Captain Pasqual, he slit the throats of two vampires whose attacks Captain Pasqual was trying to fend off, but as they fell he saw many of the others running off in the other direction, after Hermione and Ariador.

"They know something we don't" Captain Pasqual said. "Come on!"

"So these other guys you saw," Jauffre asked as they ran for the two gateways. "Another nation interested in the Capstone?"

"For our sake I hope it's the Argonians or someone else who Camri is friends with"

Jauffre ran through a mental list of nations and organisations in Tamriel. Nearly all of them had motives for getting their hands on the Capstone...

The pair turned the corner in time to see Hermione Barca parrying with two vampires, Ariador ducked down just behind her. Captain Pasqual let off a lightning bolt which slammed into the back of one of the vampires, charring them to death in an instant, allowing Hermione time to thrust her sword into the chest of the other...

"Stay away from that door!" Hermione called as Pasqual and Jauffre ran towards them. Too late.

The concealed door swung open. More vampires began to emerge.

"Talos save me..." Jauffre said wearily. He and Captain Pasqual stood to face the new adversaries, realising that they had once again been cut off from Hermione and Ariador. Then, he heard a bang behind him as the door to Fanacas was opened.

"Back the way Camri went!" Jauffre said hurriedly as he began to run. "We don't want to get surrounded!"

The pair bolted for the other gate, as the vampires gave chase and bootfalls echoed down the entrance hall. Miraculously, they made the short dash across the entrance hall without coming under fire, and reached the opposite room. As Captain Pasqual turned around, he saw something incredible. The five vampires who pursued them were hit by a shocking attack, led by a stocky, hairy-bearded man wielding an engraved silver axe. He and his men moved like a solid wall, practically pulverising the vampires where they stood.

"Who in Oblivion are these guys?" Jauffre whispered. "Nords?"

No sooner had he spoken when one of the Nords turned and glanced into the room, locking eyes with Jauffre and Captain Pasqual.

"Horst! In there!"

"Hey, wait, those guys ain't vampires" another Nord said. The six-strong group of Nords all laid down their weapons, and Jauffre and Pasqual did the same. The big, bearded man stepped forwards.

"Treasure hunters?" he asked. "We kinda knew we might run into vampires, but we didn't think any adventurers would, er, adventure that far up here"

"You could say that, yes." Captain Pasqual said. The Nord looked him up and down.

"If y'all are treasure hunters, it looks like you've found some good hordes in your time. Nice armour"

The Nord held out his hand. "My name is Horst of Whiterun"

Jauffre returned the gesture. "I recognise your name. It's an honour to meet you"

During Jauffre's time in the Blades, word about Horst of Whiterun had filtered through to him. The Nord adventurer and some friends had met a distressed priest of Ysmir in a tavern in the town of Windhelm, who had explained that several priceless relics had been stolen from his chapel when bandits had raided it. Horst and his friends vowed to get the relics back, and managed it, tracking the bandits to a remote abandoned mine high in the mountains of Skyrim. From here on in, Horst had become a folk hero, and soon found many other priests and citizens lining up to persuade him to recover treasures stolen from them. It suited him down to the ground - he loved adventuring, and also fighting for whoever he deemed to be 'the good guys'.

Then he heard about the Capstone.

"There's more" Ariel Lasaille whispered suddenly. The pair stopped in their tracks. From Camri's sense of direction, he guessed that they had almost completed the circuit of Fanacas and found very little, certainly not the Capstone. That was when Ariel had stopped him. Using an extremely amped-up life-detection spell, she had seen a flurry of activity back near the entrance of the ruin - another party had entered Fanacas. That was why they were trying to get back to the entrance hall as quickly as possible, but then somewhere in front of them was another group of people. Too many of them for it to be the others.

"More mercenaries," Camri whispered. "I suspected we might not have seen Amador's entire raiding party back there. If he used ten men to storm Melethar's Refuge just to find where the Capstone is, he wouldn't have brought just a few two-bit mercenaries to its actual hiding place"

"We can't possibly defeat them all. What do we do?" Ariel asked.

"We use the one thing that grunts for hire rarely have - intelligence"

And so Camri Everlight burst into a barracks-like encampment nestled in a large room of Fanacas, lit by torches, with eight mercenaries scattered around it. They all drew arms and bore down on Camri immediately. Feigning shock, he turned and bolted back towards the corridor he had emerged from, but he dropped something along the way. A handful of objects, which all shattered as they hit the ground. Empty potion bottles.

Then, Camri suddenly spun around, pulled a Dunmer crossbow off his back and fired it out into the room. It went high, as he had intended, but it slowed down the pace of the mercenaries. Long enough for Ariel to leap out of a wall recess in the tunnel and do what she did best.

In a single shocking instant, the hundreds of shards of glass that littered the floor of the room leapt up into the air and rocketed towards the mercenaries in a fan-shaped wave of razor-sharp fragments. The mercenaries never stood a chance. Flesh was ripped from bone as the wall of glass slammed into their faces. Most of them were dead before they could even comprehend what was happening.

"It can't be far now" Camri said, reloading the crossbow and running across the room, not even stopping to look at the dead mercenaries. He knew who they had been working for and what he was capable of - he felt no remorse for them anymore.

Then, with Ariel just behind him, he rounded a corner and stopped dead in his tracks, the Altmer student Ariador stood before him.

He was even more surprised when Ariador also froze, a look of shock on his face, then tumbled forwards with an arrow protruding from the back of his neck.

"No..." Ariel gasped. Camri did not even hesitate - he levelled the crossbow and fired it at the Bosmer archer he could see further down the hall, nailing the bastard square between the eyes. Then, he bent down and felt Ariador's pulse. Nothing. The arrow must have severed his spine - at least his death would have been painless.

Only then did he look up and take in the situation further down the hall. He saw Hermione Barca, backed up against a wall, parrying off three men, a Redguard and two Imperials, who were all laying into her with swords. He was amazed at how she was fighting off all three attackers...

Coming back to his senses, Camri jammed another bolt into the crossbow, took aim and fired. The bolt thudded into the abdomen of the Redguard and he fell back, shouting in pain. Hermione used the distraction to shockingly decapitate one of the Imperials, but as she did, the other raised his sword to strike a killing blow. Desperately, Camri reached for another crossbow bolt, and found nothing.

The small row of notches on the lateral bar of the crossbow was empty.

"Oh, that's not fair!" Camri shouted, throwing the weapon to the ground, drawing his sword and racing towards Hermione, knowing that he could not possibly get there in time...

But then, the Imperial was suddenly thrown towards him by a tremendous impact. A tall, bearded man leapt on top of the Imperial, throwing him to the ground and then bashing the handle of a war axe into his forehead, killing him.

"What..." Camri began, then he saw Captain Pasqual further down the hall, helping the bearded Nord to his feet. It seemed like the others had made some new friends at some point. Pasqual momentarily looked delighted at seeing Camri and Ariel, before his face fell ashen.

"Ariador..." he gasped, running towards his fallen student.

"Hermione, what in Gods' name happened here?" Camri asked as his friend regained her breath.

"Where to start? A whole bloody coven of vampires just came out of the wall, at about the same time these Nords showed up. Don't worry, they're good guys. Been helping us fight the vampires"

"Their leader is Horst of Whiterun," Jauffre said, popping up next to them and hoping Camri would recognise the name. A weary smile spread across Camri's face.

"We're in safe hands then. And before you ask, no, I didn't find the Capstone but I didn't really get chance to look. We ran into trouble"

"The Dunmer?" Jauffre asked.

Camri nodded. "Bunch of total motherfuckers, but they're dealt with now"

Camri quickly relayed what had happened to the others, their bloody encounter with Amador. Only then did he notice Captain Pasqual standing up, where he had been kneeling at the side of Ariador's dead body. He walked over and placed a hand on the Captain's shoulder.

"So much death..." Pasqual said meekly. "And for what? Just so we can stop some Daedric artifact falling into the wrong hands? He didn't deserve this. He didn't even deserve to get caught up in it, he was just in the wrong place at the right time..."

Suddenly, he seemed to snap out of a trance. "But he told us something while you were gone. He believes that the physical form of the Capstone can be destroyed..."

"I figured that," Camri said. "Like a Varla stone. But I'm worried that releasing that much energy at once will be cataclysmic"

"You need only rupture the surface of the Capstone to set the transition from solid matter to magicka off. Sigil glass is tough but not impenetrable. A good hit with an axe will do it"

"Then that's what we'll do then. No-one shall lay hands on the Capstone... if we can find the bloody thing of course"

Camri then knelt down and crossed Ariador's arms across his chest. "Thank you, Ariador"


	6. Chapter 6

By the time Camri and Pasqual rejoined the group, a meeting was being held between Horst, Hermione, Jauffre and Ariel.

"There was a lot of Legion activity when we passed through Bruma" Horst said.

"Same in Cheydinhal," Jauffre added. "However the Legion are planning on getting the Capstone for Cyrodiil, it involves a lot of manpower"

"Surely they'll be friendly to us, thought?" Horst asked.

Jauffre said nothing. Many a good man had fought for the Imperial Legion, but their officers were not always the shining beacons of the free world that they were thought to be. He, Camri and Ariel had witnessed this many times - a General waging war against Black Marsh and Elsweyr, tricking his men into thinking they were repelling a genuine threat to the Empire when really he just wanted the lands for his own personal gain, to exploit the vast amounts of resources they contained; Ariel Lasaille's false imprisonment and torture at the hands of a bloodthirsty, sadistic Watch captain.

"We cannot take it for granted that they will view our presence kindly," Jauffre said eventually. "For now, though, we came here for a reason. Fanacas is ours now - let's find this Capstone"

"I'm going to find more ammunition for these crossbows" Camri said, indicating the weapon he had taken from one of the Dunmer agents. "The other two had them as well, and I have to concede that they're damn good weapons"

He spotted one of Horst's Nordic men, a young, barrel-chested fellow, with a more basic steel crossbow strapped over his back. "Here, you might as well take this one"

The Nord grinned. "Thank you. You are a good friend of Stijn Oak-Chest"

"Yeah, and the oak he's talking about is the stuff that beer kegs are made of!" another Nord remarked to much laughter. Camri smiled - Nordic men never failed to warm his heart.

"Right then, everyone split up" Jauffre said. "Leave no stone unturned - the Capstone must be in here somewhere. If you get in trouble, just shout really loudly"

It was Hermione who located the most promising lead, a sturdy wooden Ayleid chest hidden in an alcove just beyond the entrance hall. She, Jauffre and Horst had searched their immediate surroundings while his men had gone off to gather weapons from the fallen vampires and mercenaries. She tried her lockpick on the chest but it snapped.

"Damn," Hermione said. "That's a tough lock on there. There must be something good inside it"

"Let me try," Horst said, stepping forwards. He then smashed the lid of the chest to pieces with the blunt end of the head of his axe - the wood, weakened by age and turned brittle by the northern cold, did not put up much resistance. Jauffre tapped Hermione on the shoulder.

"I like this guy"

"Let's see what we've got ourselves here, then" Horst said, scooping chunks of wood out of the chest. Eventually, he lifted out a small, leather-bound notebook. He read the inscription on the cover aloud.

"The continuing story of the Capstone, by M Selevras"

"Melethar..." Hermione gasped. Horst turned to look at her.

"You know who wrote this?"

Jauffre nodded. "Which brings me to something that's been niggling on my mind. How did you know that the Capstone was in Fanacas without knowing of Melethar Selevras?"

"You of all people should know that you never know who's watching," Horst explained. "Melethar brought the Capstone here by night, and by all accounts the thing glows like the brightest of torches. A wildman saw it, eventually ended up back in Windhelm and told a few people about this weird glowing pyramid he saw moving through the Valus foothills. Obviously most people thought he was mad. Then me and my friends heard about the Capstone and put the pieces together"

As he spoke, Hermione had begun leafing through the book. "It's telling us where the Capstone is. It's not in Fanacas, he took it somewhere else after this..."

Then, ignoring Jauffre's advice, she turned around and bellowed Camri's name at the top of her voice.

Sure enough, it wasn't long before Camri, Ariel, Captain Pasqual and the five other Nords descended on the entrance hall, weapons raised, expecting to see Hermione under attack, not poring through a leather-bound notebook.

"Oh yeah, the alarm" Hermione said, slapping her forehead. "Sorry to worry you all"

Camri sighed. "This had better be good"

"Does 'The Cave of Underground Trees' mean anything to you?" Hermione asked, ignoring the remark. "Another play on words, like Capstone Cave?"

"There is a cave, not far from here," Camri said, lost in thought. "Perhaps it's not a riddle, but something literal. Kingscrest Cavern. It's a bizarre place, because the roots of trees do indeed grow down into the cave itself. It's like an underground forest. And I'd wager that there is a way into that cave from inside Fanacas"

"How do you know?" Horst asked.

"When we came in, I let down my guard. I saw that the dust on the floor in the entry hall hadn't been disturbed for a very long time. But we know the Dunmer got here just before us, because we've been only a couple of steps behind them the whole time. They must have found another way in"

Hermione began to read aloud from the book. "I could not risk leaving Fanacas through its front entrance, and revealing the third and most direct entrance would give away the hiding place of the Capstone to any common adventurer. I did not know who might have been watching Fanacas since I brought the Capstone here. I had to go to ground"

"Might I suggest we don't go outside?" Jauffre said, reminding the group of the large Imperial Legion presence building up in the area.

"The third and most direct entrance..." Ariel thought out loud. "To me, that suggests a tunnel between Fanacas and this cave"

Suddenly, Camri began to run back towards the entrance hall. "Come with me!" he called behind him.

The group all gathered on the small balcony that overlooked the flooded room in the middle of Fanacas.

"If trees can grow in a cave underground, there must be a lot of natural groundwater there," Camri explained. "And look at this - do you see the steps leading down into the pool all around its edge?"

"This room was never flooded when the Ayleids resided here," Hermione said.

"Exactly! I'd go as far as saying that Melethar deliberately flooded this room somehow, as another signpost. Now, who feels like a swim?"

Camri looked around. Nobody seemed enthusiastic.

"Looks bloody freezing," Captain Pasqual said. He was right - small patches of ice floated on the pool's surface.

"I'll go with you, Mr Everlight," one of the Nords said. He looked younger and more athletic than the others, his blonde hair combed back tidily over his head, his weapons and armour immaculate. Horst explained that his name was Kail and that he came from a long line of adventurers and treasure hunters.

"Good man. Ariel, amp me up"

Ariel nodded and cast a spell over Camri, splashing him with light of every colour of the rainbow.

"You shouldn't have any problem breathing or keeping warm now," Ariel explained.

"Thanks," Camri said, smiling warmly. "Kail?"

The young Nord simply took a bottle of mead from his backpack, pulled the cork out of it and took a few gulps. "From Solstheim. Keeps you warm better than any magic can"

"Later on, I'm trying some of that," Jauffre said to himself. With that, Camri and Kail climbed off the balcony and plunged into the cold water.

"What are we looking for?" Kail asked.

"You'll know when you see it," Camri replied. He was treading water, peering into the depths beneath him.

Everyone else watched as the pair swam around in the icy pool, before Camri suddenly stopped and abruptly dived beneath the surface.

He had noticed something unusual on the floor of the flooded room, in its very centre. It was a large circular section of floor, raised a few inches above the rest of the level, and made from a slightly darker stone. It was almost as if it had been built later than the rest of Fanacas...

Camri kicked his way up to the surface and broke out. Straight away, he clocked one of the Nords wearing a warhammer slung across his back.

"Can I borrow that?" Camri asked.

"Never ask a Nord to surrender his weapon!" the man roared back. "But by all means you may borrow me"

The Nord, Holjer, clambered down into the pool, seemingly ignorant of the freezing water, and paddled over to Camri.

"Beneath me you'll see a circular plate on the floor," Camri said to Holjer. "Just smash it with that hammer as hard as you can and see what happens. Kail, you might want to either get out or hold onto something"

"Sounds risky," the other Nord said, as he made his way out of the pool to join the others. Meanwhile, Camri dived below the surface again, followed by Holjer, directing him towards the round plate. Holjer swung his hammer as best as he could against the resistance of the water, striking the plate in its centre and producing a small crack in it. The pair immediately felt a slight pressure, as water was sucked towards the hole.

_Again, _Camri motioned. Holjer struck the circular stone again, significantly widening the crack, until the plate simply split in two and fell down into a large hole left in its place. The effect was immediate - the contents of the pool began to rush towards the hole and plunge down it. Holjer powered towards the edge of the pool against the current, but Camri felt himself being dragged towards the hole. Desperately, he kicked against the current.

_Just stay breathing, _Camri thought to himself. He could see the surface of the water slowly descending towards him, but all the time he was being sucked towards the void in the centre of the pool, which as far as he could see, plunged to bottomless depths.

Eventually, his strength sapped, terrified, he was sucked towards the hole. Desperately, he threw out a hand and managed to grab onto the rim of the pit, water tumbling down all around him. It felt like his arm was about to be wrenched from its socket...

Suddenly, a powerful grip wrapped itself around his wrist and pulled him, against the falling water, back into the pool, now almost completely drained. He was helped to his feet, and only then did he open his eyes and see Horst standing next to him, smiling warmly through his drenched grey beard.

"Thank you," Camri said, gasping for breath. "Why didn't I see that coming..."

Soon, all the others had gathered around the newly-formed pit in the centre of the pool. Ariel cast a magical light down into the pit, and realised it was not as dangerous as it seemed - it was a natural tunnel, carved from bare rock by nothing but the flow of water, and just below the hole in the floor it rounded a sharp bend, becoming almost horizontal again.

"The third way out," Ariel said. "We've found it!"

"Call me stupid, but I haven't seen the second yet," Captain Pasqual said.

"Probably a hidden door out to the surface somewhere," Camri replied. "Quite common in Ayleid tombs like this one. I'd wager that our Dunmer friends used it to get in and lay a trap for us"

"Well, we've come this far," Hermione said, peering into the pit. "I'll lead - you need a rest, Camri"

The tunnel led down a winding path for a few hundred yards before it descended into a pool of water as the passage reached an otherwise dead end. Camri, still under the influence of the spell that Ariel had cast on him, waded into the pool then dipped his head under the surface.

"It's just a submerged tunnel," he explained. "The surface is only a few yards further in. It's just a little swim"

Camri Everlight emerged from the underwater tunnel, one hand on the hilt of his sword, and broke the surface, to be greeted with the sight of two men staring at him.

He drew his sword as the others began to surface, but reality quickly dawned on him, pushing aside the clouds of instinct. The men didn't seem hostile, and weren't even armed. Indeed, he recognised one of them.

"Eldred?"

"Tarric?" Captain Pasqual gasped, emerging next to him.


	7. Chapter 7

As the group climbed out of the pool with Eldred and Tarric's help, only Jauffre did not seem particularly surprised.

"What are you doing here?" Camri asked Eldred after they had exchanged greetings - he had not seen the Dunmer adventurer for several years.

"Mainly I'm here to turn you round. You won't find the Capstone in this cave"

"You know about the Capstone?"

Jauffre approached the pair upon hearing this. "Sorry, Camri, I should have told you who I'm actually working for at the moment"

"So you and Eldred are in this together. But someone must be paying your wages..."

"Amador and his men are all dead," Jauffre said to Eldred, ignoring Camri. "The immediate threat may be dealt with"

"Camri, the situation involving the Dunmer coming after the Capstone is somewhat more delicate than you might realise," Eldred explained. "I'm sure you know that Morrowind is essentially ruled by a balance of power between the King and the Great Houses. Amador was House Redoran, so were all his men. They have very little to do with King Helseth and his court"

"Then why are they acting in the name of the nation of Morrowind?"

"They're not," Eldred said, "Well, not entirely. They are acting in the name of the allegiance of the Great Houses. Interestingly, the soldiers of the Great Houses are _all _fighting against the Argonian occupation, while many of the King's soldiers have surrendered. By all accounts, they get on amicably with the Argonian invaders and many of them are garrisoning captured towns"

_King Helseth's men are helping the Argonian invaders, but the Great Houses are not, _Camri thought. _What's really going on here?_

"Whatever the case, Amador Herelas is now lying on the floor with a crossbow bolt through his head," Camri said. "Now, what were you saying about the Capstone?"

"It's not in Kingscrest Cavern," Eldred said.

"That's what I'd come up here to tell you about, Captain," Tarric said. "Then Eldred here found me on the way to Fanacas when we ran into a bit of trouble. By correspondence with Eldred, the Council discovered where the Capstone really ended up and sent me to find you and help you out. But by the time Eldred himself showed up, they had learned of the threat the Legion poses"

Eldred sighed. "Camri, the Imperial Legion has orders to retrieve the Capstone and neutralise any threat that gets in their way. _Any _threat. And yes, that does include national heroes and members of the Arcane University"

"Eldred, where's the Capstone?" Camri asked impatiently.

"Ah, yes. I suspect you have made the same mistake that we did to begin with - you thought that Melethar Selevras was the last person to have possession of the Capstone, and you have been following his trail to where he left it"

Camri nodded.

"But the trail does not end with Melethar. In fact, it made one more move after he brought it into this cave. It took a lot of hunting, but eventually I found an account which details how Stendarran monks came to Kingscrest Cavern and took the Capstone from it"

"Followers of Stendarr? What did they want with the Capstone?" Jauffre asked.

"The same thing we want with it," Eldred explained. "Stendarr, in some guises, represents trade and commerce. These monks were approached by a group of traders who were willing to donate enormous riches to the chapel of Stendarr should the Capstone disappear in a way that no-one could really explain what had happened to it"

"I still don't see why," Jauffre asked.

"I think I do," Ariel said suddenly. "Eldred, by any chance were these traders sellers of enchanted devices?"

Eldred tapped his nose with his index finger

"Seems like they didn't want their produce to plummet in value after the market was flooded with thousands of enchanted weapons created by the Capstone," Tarric said. "So the traders decided to employ a little divine intervention"

"Religious quests to regulate the economy," Camri said. "Incredible. I'm hoping you know where the Capstone ended up"

"Indeed I do," Eldred said. An air of relief suddenly descended over the small cavern. "To paraphrase the account, they took the Capstone back south towards Fanacas, then 'returned it to its rightful place atop the greatest peak of them all'. The key bit of information is that they never left the Valus foothills"

"The greatest peak of them all?" Camri thought aloud. "It must be Dive Rock..."

"That's what we thought too," Tarric said.

"Hang on," Horst asked. "You're telling me that for the last couple of hundred years the peak of Dive Rock has been a Daedric gemstone?"

"Tamriel's a strange place at times," Hermione said. "It's probably buried under quite a lot of snow and ice by now..."

"Let's stop wasting time," Jauffre said suddenly. "Eldred, can you lead us out of this cave?"

"That's not going to be easy..."

Outside, a fifty-year-old Imperial man stood on a large boulder, overlooking the Valus foothills. He could just make out the ruins of Fanacas to the north, and to the south, the patch of trees that the entrance to Kingscrest Cave was hidden in. Elsewhere, his men had two entrances to an abandoned mine surrounded.

He would succeed where other parties had not. He would make sure of it. Somewhere underground, be it in Fanacas or natural caves, Camri Everlight, the Arcane University's team, and possibly a group of Nord adventurers, were doing the legwork of the treasure hunt for him. When they emerged, with or without the Capstone, there would be no avoiding him. One thing was for certain - by the end of the day, the Capstone would be his, and the Empire would rise again.

"The foothills are absolutely crawling with Imperial Legionnaires," Eldred said. "We just about managed to slip past them to get into this cave. There's no way we would have been able to get to Fanacas"

"And you say that their orders are to kill anyone who gets in their way?" Camri asked. Eldred nodded sadly.

"Eldred, did you find out who is leading them?"

"It's Acilius" Eldred said flatly.

Camri balked at the name. He had heard enough of Marus Acilius to know that he was a deeply unpleasant man. A one-time leader of a group of special agents working for the Legion, he was dismissed after his generals realised how he had been treating prisoners - innocent political prisoners who had been subjected to torture so shockingly brutal that one warden at the Imperial prison could simply not bring himself to enter the cell block. But due to a shortage of Legion soldiers of officer standard during various outbreaks of conflict, he had been recruited as a patrol leader - indeed, his skills as a soldier were very good indeed. In his new role, he was equally notorious. Knowing the reason he had been dismissed in his first role, he declared that he had had a change of heart. He no longer took prisoners - he simply executed them.

"This might be risky, but as soon as we encounter them we wait for them to fire the first shot," Camri said. "I'm willing to take the chance that they won't be hostile towards us. We don't know who they consider their enemies - it could be the Dunmer, or another party that we haven't encountered yet"

"Why don't we just go back to Fanacas?" Horst asked. "Surely it must be easier to reach Dive Rock from there"

"We think that's where the Legion will be concentrating their power," Tarric said. "I mean, most of the signposts point towards the Capstone being in there. And I don't know about you guys, but I don't feel like hanging around"

"Right," Camri said. "Eldred, lead on. Ariel, give life detection everything you've got. I want to see them coming from a league away this time"

Wielding a crossbow very similar to the ones that the Dunmer agents had been using, Eldred Moravahn led the party through a wide, upwardly-sloping tunnel further into Kingscrest Cavern. The chamber it emerged in was a remarkable sight - the underground trees that Camri had spoken of. In some cases, huge clumps of roots stretched like pillars from floor to ceiling, disappearing into cracks. And dotted around were a few trees, their wood black and knotted, almost petrified and bare of leaves.

"Wherever our travels take us there are some sights that never cease to amaze me," Ariel mused.

Soon, the group arrived at what Eldred identified as the point of entry into the cave system. It was another tree-filled chamber, and from the distant end of another tunnel could be seen a speck of sunlight.

"Is it clear out there, Ariel?" Eldred asked.

Ariel cast a spell on herself then glanced around. Then, suddenly, she froze in shock.

"What is it?" Camri said, placing a hand on Ariel's arm. Ariel leant into Camri and cast the same spell on him, the same life detecting spell.

"We've never been in this much trouble before"

Camri's vision filled with a purple aura. He knew enough about the spell to know that the life it was revealing was far away, but there was a lot of it. He spun around, seeing the same in every direction.

"How many do you think there are?"

"Hundreds, at least," Ariel said nervously. "Far too many for us to take on. Wait... there's a small group getting closer, moving in formation..."

"They're coming," Captain Pasqual said ominously. "An advance party"

"We can hide back in Fanacas," Jauffre said. "There must be more to it than meets the eye - those vampires were coming out of the bloody walls"

"He's right..." Hermione began. But then there was a loud, splintering crash from somewhere in the tunnel beyond them. The door into the cave system, barricaded shut by Eldred and Tarric, had been smashed open.

"Get back to the trees!" Camri urged. "We can use them as cover!"

In a flash of light, summoned by Captain Pasqual, a Daedroth materialised in the tunnel leading to the surface - a welcoming party for the Legion soldiers. The group dispersed into the chamber that was filled with pillar-like tree roots. Camri, Captain Pasqual, Hermione and Stijn, the Nord archer, remained nearest the front, with Eldred ready to cover their retreat.

Half-visible in shadows, the Legion group thundered down the tunnel. The Daedroth charged at them, taking two almighty swipes with its tree trunk-like forearms, taking down three soldiers straight away. But then it staggered back, several arrows protruding from its chest, before it vanished in another burst of white light.

Camri nodded to Stijn, who was standing nearest to him. They were both carrying the powerful Dunmer crossbows, and in perfect synchronisation they hopped out of cover and fired. Camri's shot went wide, but Stijn nailed one of the approaching soldiers in the throat. But the Legion men were quick on the draw - as Stijn tried to roll back into cover, his arm was winged by an arrow.

"Ah! Fuck!" he shouted, falling to the ground.

"Get in cover!" Hermione shouted to him, realising he was totally exposed. But as he tried to get to his feet, another arrow struck him in the temple. He slumped to the ground, the tree next to him getting showered in blood and brain matter. Camri jammed another bolt into his crossbow and left cover long enough to locate the sniper who had killed Stijn, taking him down with a shot that hit him in the bridge of the nose. He only just managed to get back behind the tree as an arrow whizzed past him, and another struck into the root with a dull thud, making the whole tree vibrate.

"Give 'em hell!" Camri shouted. "Ariel, do something about these bloody arrows!"

Captain Pasqual left cover and was immediately fired upon by another archer, but the arrow bounced harmlessly off his sturdy ebony armour. A colossal fireball roared from the Captain's hands, striking the ground in the middle of a group of three archers. The impact kicked up a cloud of dust which was ignited by the fire, incinerating the three marksmen. Only then did Pasqual duck as an arrow sailed past him.

"Ariel!" Camri shouted, spinning round. He saw Horst and the rest of his men, moving through cover and preparing to charge. Eldred, his bow raised and firing upon the group of attackers. Jauffre, darting in and out of cover, carrying the third Dunmer crossbow and trying to get the Legion men within the weapon's lethal range. Tarric, casting a volley of spells into the melee, some offensive, some beneficial to the others.

But Ariel was nowhere to be seen.

Desperately, Camri leapt out from behind the pillar-like root, spinning on the spot as he landed to minimise his profile as an arrow shot by either side of him. In three more huge paces, he landed at Hermione's side as she pulled an arrow from her quiver.

"Ariel's gone. I have to go and find her"

"What?" Hermione shouted, firing off her bow.

"Look, it's too hot here. You'll have to retreat back to Fanacas. I'll find you in there"

Hermione nodded. "Good luck, Camri"

Camri placed an arm on Hermione's shoulder. "I'll see you soon"

As Camri ran towards the back of the cave, Hermione was knocked to her feet as a fire-tipped arrow struck the tree she was hiding behind, igniting the ancient, bone-dry wood in an instant. He briefly wondered if he would ever see her, or any of the others, again.

"Hermione, this is insane!" Captain Pasqual shouted. "What the hell do we do?"

"Just hold them off for a bit longer," Hermione said evenly. The Legion soldiers had now broken fully into the cavern and Hermione got a proper look at them. Their armour was silver-plated chain mail, tough and lightweight, and they wore black hoods pulled up over their heads. They were the Elite Party, extremely skilled soldiers trained for fighting in close quarters and small numbers, rather than on the open like the regular Legion men. Hermione reached for an arrow from her quiver, realising it was the last one, and pulled back her drawstring, just as another Legion archer raised his own weapon at her. Hermione fired her bow at exactly the same time the Legion man did, but strangely he stumbled backwards, dead, as soon as he had released the arrow. His shot went high, clattering off the ceiling, and Hermione noticed that a crossbow bolt protruded from the marksman's neck. Jauffre had reached the front line and got his shot off maybe a fraction of a second before Hermione.

"Draw them back," Hermione said to Jauffre. The old man nodded, scooping up Stijn's shield and running to another tree root, using the shield to deflect a volley of arrows that was fired at him. As soon as he reached cover, he popped out from the other side and fired off his crossbow, nailing another archer in the thigh whilst blocking an arrow with his shield.

It worked. Some of the archers sheathed their bows and drew swords, charging towards the cluster of trees, several advancing towards Jauffre. Two archers raised their bows to cover the advance, but before they even got their shots off, they were taken down by twin bolts of lightning from Captain Pasqual and Tarric. Two swordsmen reached Jauffre's position, but he fired his crossbow at point-blank range into the head of one of them, then threw Stijn's shield like a discus at the other, striking him in the throat and knocking the wind from him.

"_Tarric's hit!" _someone shouted. _"Get to him!"_

"_On it!" _came a loud Nordic reply. Jauffre saw one of Horst's men leave cover and race towards Tarric, who was lying slumped behind another tree with an arrow protruding from his gut. He got halfway before he was nailed by an archer, struck in the temple.

"Get me some cover!" Jauffre shouted. He threw his crossbow hard, low to the ground, and it landed close enough to Tarric for him to agonisingly bend forward and lift it up. His load lightened, he broke into a lightning-fast sprint across the exposed ground, arrowfire peppering the ground behind him as he ran. But, just as he neared Tarric, a soldier lunged at him with a sword...

...only for his head to suddenly explode as a crossbow bolt struck the back of his skull. As the soldier fell, Jauffre saw Tarric, lying back, exhausted and holding onto the crossbow.

"You alright?" Jauffre asked, falling down by Tarric's side.

Tarric nodded. "Are we gonna get out of this?"

"I think we are," Jauffre replied. "Take a look at this"

By now, all of the Elite Party men had realised that using bows was bogging the fight down into a stalemate - Hermione, Captain Pasqual and Eldred were too entrenched, so they had all downed their bows and drawn swords and charged. Almost as if they had been waiting for the moment, the three retreated in formation - one would run then cover the other two. They made ground quickly, nearing the back of the cave with the swordsmen just behind them...

Held back by the weight of his armour, Captain Pasqual's pace was slowing. In a flash of light, a Daedric sword materialised in his hands and he turned to face his opponents. He stayed where he was, adopting a blocking stance as two swordsmen charged at him...

At that moment, Horst and Holjer jumped out from behind cover and cut down the two swordsmen. A third followed them up, but Horst did not even stop, carrying on the colossal swing of his axe and thudding it into the soldier's side, slicing straight through his chainmail armour and much of his abdomen.

The trap that the group had carefully been laying finally became apparent. The swordsmen had become surrounded by an ambush - Horst and his men parried with them in the centre of the patch of tree roots as they were picked off one by one by Eldred, Hermione and Captain Pasqual.

Silence fell in the cavern, before Captain Pasqual exhaled a deep breath.

The group took in their losses. The gung-ho spirit had faded from Horst's eyes as the deaths of two of his friends hit him. Tarric's stomach wound was beyond what anyone could heal in the field. Camri and Ariel had gone missing.

"I suppose they're in a better place now," Horst said, looking at the two dead Nords. "They don't have to go through any more of this shit"

"What do we do?" Eldred asked. "Make a run for it?"

"No. Make for Fanacas" Hermione said. "Camri was right - there's enough hiding places in there to get around the Legion. Then we can find the back way out of there that Melethar mentioned and make a run for the Capstone"

"And what about Camri and Ariel?"

Hermione shook her head. "We can only hope for the best"


	8. Chapter 8

Camri Everlight raced through the tunnels and chambers of Kingscrest, his eyes locked on the floor. For all her magical skill and intelligence, Ariel Lasaille was not skilled in staying hidden, or any other stealth discipline. Her fur boots had left a prominent trail in the dust and gravel that caked the floor in the cave. Initially, it seemed she was heading back to the pool of water that led back to Fanacas, following the large collection of footprints leading in the other direction - the ones that he and all the others had left earlier. But she had deviated, darting down a narrow tunnel obscured by shadows. A hiding place.

He ran down the tunnel, night-eye lighting the way, until he began to hear something. Rapid, laboured breathing, almost whimpering...

"Ariel?" he called softly. "Ariel, is that you?"

Camri followed the tunnel to its end, where he found the source of the sound. Ariel was curled up behind a large rock, hidden from view. He said nothing, and sat down next to her and placed his arm around her, pulling her close to his chest.

"I can't go on, Camri," Ariel whispered. "I can't do this. I want to leave"

"I know, so do I. But we can't..."

"Did you know Ariador? I did. I saw him at the Arcane University all the time. He was a kind and intelligent young man, one of the University's most promising students, then I saw him slain by vampires, sometime between getting very close to being executed in front of you just to spite you and being attacked by the soldiers of the Empire!"

Camri didn't know what to say. In the field of his night-eye spell, he could see the glistening of tears dripping down Ariel's cheek.

"I'm staying here. You'll come and find me when this is over, won't you?"

"Ariel, I'm not doing anything without you. I know it's not going to be easy. We've got a mountain to climb - literally..."

Ariel briefly forced a smile. "Camri, I've seen too much death. I've seen too many who deserve life be killed. What about Amador's other agents? What if they were just normal working men who were trying to earn a living to feed their families?"

Camri placed both hands on Ariel's shoulders. "Ariel, I have killed a lot of people in my time and the only one that I felt good about doing was Amador Herelas. I'm sorry about Ariador too"

"If we'd got there a few seconds sooner..."

"Look, if it helps I'm sorry we got mixed up in this hunt for the Capstone. We shouldn't have got involved"

"What do you mean?"

"First off, I don't know what the Legion want with the Capstone. It's just happenstance that their orders are to kill anyone else who is after it. But the Dunmer are fighting their own war over it. The reason Amador and his men were sent to get the Capstone was so the Great Houses in Morrowind could make a stand against both the Argonians and the King's men. I figured it out - they're in it together"

"What?"

"The failing of the Ingenium and the destroying of Vvardenfell came at the right time. King Helseth has been looking for a way to get rid of the Great Houses for years. They are a mark on an otherwise fine nation, hanging on to ancient, brutal traditions. Do you think it's coincidence that the King's men have surrendered to the Argonian raiders, but the Great Houses have stood and fought? They haven't 'surrendered' at all - they've welcomed them with open arms"

"Everything in Morrowind - it's happening for a reason..." Ariel stuttered.

"Exactly. If it ever gets too much, just think about that instead. It's a lot to take in. It'll have you scratching your chin until we get to the top of Dive Rock"

"That might be a problem..." Ariel said as she suddenly jumped to her feet. She was glancing around in a way that Camri by now knew was enhanced by life detection.

"I can see the others in the tunnel back to Fanacas, but there's more Legion soldiers behind them. They defeated the first wave. I've been watching it all from here"

Camri smiled. "Glad you came along. Now, are you coming with me or not?"

Ariel reluctantly nodded, and the pair raced down the tunnel.

It wasn't long before they encountered opposition. They had no sooner left the tunnel than they were forced to dive behind a rock as a volley of arrow fire shot over their heads. But a few of the arrows, amazingly, stopped abruptly mid-flight, spun around and rocketed back at tremendous speeds, killing the three marksmen. The pair leapt out of cover, not breaking pace, but Camri stopped when they reached the three dead Legion men.

"Oh, _yes..._" Camri said, taking a weapon from one of them. It was a bulky-looking crossbow, fashioned from a dull golden metal, with a large cylindrical casing around the firing mechanism. In the base of this cylinder was a small hatch.

"Not many of these around," Camri explained. "As far as anyone knows, a Dwarven forge started manufacturing them towards the end of their war with the Dark Elves. A few score were made before whatever made the Dwarves disappear happen. Who knows - with firepower like this they probably would have won the war and conquered Morrowind. Ariel, this is an automatically-reloading crossbow"

"Good idea," Ariel mused.

"Now we can make a charge for the pool and the tunnel and hopefully get there before the others get ambushed. Just take care of any arrows that get too close"

"Hey, Hermione, you hear that?"

Hermione Barca had been concentrating on the winding tunnel that led back into Fanacas. She hadn't noticed Horst siding up next to her, or what he had apparently heard.

"What?"

"It sounded like splashes back in the pool. Far away, lots of them. I think it was someone else coming into the tunnel. Shall I check it out?"

"No, we stay together. If you're right, the Legion have sent quite a few advance parties in, and possibly into Fanacas too. All we need to do is stay a step ahead of them"

"Sitting ducks," an Imperial Elite Party officer said as he saw the last of the opposition jumping into a pool of water. "Follow them in and show no mercy"

Several of the Legion soldiers began to run towards the pool as another man approached him.

"Sir, still no sign of Entrellius..."

_Thwack-thwack!_ The soldier never finished his sentence as he and the officer were struck in their throats by twin crossbow bolts.

Three of the remaining soldiers who were yet to jump into the pool all spun round at once...

_Thwack-thwack-thwack!_

Camri Everlight stood with his two crossbows raised, never breaking pace. As a system of springs and gears in the Dwarven weapon had raised another bolt into the firing chamber and ratcheted back the drawstring, he had fired off the Dunmer crossbow. Another two soldiers turned round as Camri agonisingly waited for the Dwarven engineering to do its thing, but he felt Ariel grab two arrows out of his quiver and throw them high over his head. The two remaining soldiers raised their bows at Camri, still fumbling with the two crossbows, not seeing Ariel command the flight of the two arrows with telekinesis. The two projectiles flew downwards at wicked speed and struck the soldiers in their scalps, piercing through the black hoods they wore over their heads and killing them instantly.

"Some of them are in the water!" Ariel said.

"I know," Camri replied as he drew a weapon - not his sword, but a simple hardened steel knife. "Any chance of some magicka?"

Ariel nodded. Camri bent down at the water's edge and Ariel placed her hands on his back, transferring some of her enormous reservoir of magicka into him. The energy surged through Camri so strongly that he almost seemed to glow in the dark cavern. Then, he gripped the knife with his left hand, dangling its tip into the water, and touching the blade with his right hand. A shower of sparks erupted from his hand and conducted down the blade like a lightning rod, surging into the water and illuminating the whole pool a vivid cyan glow. Steam began to rise from the surface of the pool. After a few seconds, Camri raised the knife out of the water and let the steam settle. Then, he leapt into the pool, Ariel following close behind him. The heat from the surge of electricity had slightly heated the pool, making it pleasantly warm - as they swam through it, it was a brief respite from everything else that had happened since Ariel had appeared outside Camri's house.

The pair surfaced in the tunnel beyond, having swam past the charred, electrocuted bodies of a few Legion soldiers, and commenced the journey back to Fanacas.

"Have you actually thought about how you're going to find the Capstone at the top of Dive Rock?" Ariel asked as they ran.

"I've been trying to. By definition a capstone is the peak of a pyramid, a small pyramid within itself, so it stands to reason that the monks placed it at the very tip of Dive Rock, the peak at the top of the huge west-facing cliff that everyone knows. All we have to do is get to the peak and somehow melt a lot of snow very quickly, since we'll have a few hundred Imperial Legion bastards on our tail by that point"

The pair reached the end of the tunnel, and climbed up the rough walls through the hole back into Fanacas' central chamber...

Just in time to see Tarric, knelt down, hands behind his back, blood still seeping from the wound in his stomach.

Just in time to see an Imperial Legion soldier hold a crossbow to the back of Tarric's head - one of the Dunmer weapons - and pull the trigger.

Ariel screamed at the sight, but Camri desperately looked around, taking in the situation. The others were all standing in a line along one wall of the pit, their weapons stripped from them. And all around the edge of the pit were Imperial Legion soldiers, most of them Elite Party members, with longbows trained upon the group, although now a few shifted their aim to Camri and Ariel.

A horrific realisation dawned on Camri. They had fallen into a trap. The Elite Party groups that had been sent into Kingscrest Cavern had not been trying to exterminate them, they had been trying to flush them back into Fanacas, straight into the arms of General Marus Acilius, who was standing in full ceremonial battle dress at the top of the staircase that led out of the pit.


	9. Chapter 9

"If those archers fired," Camri whispered, "Could you take care of the arrows?"

Ariel shook her head imperceptibly. "I'm dry. I used all my magicka back in Kingscrest Cavern"

"Nice of you to join us, Camri!" Jauffre called to him. Camri turned to face his friends.

"Don't tell him where the Capstone is. He'll kill you, regardless of what you say"

"You seem to know quite a lot about me, Camri Everlight" Marus Acilius said, slowly descending the steps towards him. "Perhaps you would be polite enough to talk to me face-to-face"

"General, this is the second time today I've been held captive and I'm already getting a bit tired of it," Camri said, trying not to betray his fear. "Surely we have a common objective? The Dunmer will not get their hands on the Capstone now"

Acilius nodded. "We found Amador's dead body in here and deduced that it must have been you that killed him. I must commend you - he was a formidable opponent and a dangerous man. Our spies had been watching him for a long time. Good riddance, I say.

"But I'm afraid you're wrong, and we do not have a common objective. I know all about you, Camri Everlight, and you, Ariel Lasaille, and your rag-tag bunch of minnows. All you want is to keep the world turning. But I want it to change"

"So you get the Capstone. What are you going to do with it?" Camri asked.

"Camri, ever since the Emperor and Chancellor Ocato were killed, both by your hand I believe, Tamriel has been at unrest. One only needs to see the conflict in Morrowind and Black Marsh to realise this. All we have leading us is the Elder Council, and they all have their own private agendas at heart which they will place before the greater good. Cyrodiil has lost its seat as the dominant power on our continent, and I intend to bring it back. With the Capstone powering it, the Imperial Legion will be unstoppable. We aim to take White Gold Tower by force, and then, out of the ashes of the old Empire, will arise a new power in Tamriel"

"A military dictatorship?" Camri scoffed. "Brilliant"

"There will be no dissent. There will be peace across Tamriel - peace on my terms"

"I agree that Tamriel needs leadership, but this is not the way to gain it. You would rule Tamriel even with the blood of scores of innocent people on your hands?"

"Yes," Acilius said coldly. "And now, back to our current situation. I am going to give you two options. I'm sure you must have figured out where the Capstone is by now. If you tell me, myself and my men will retrieve it while you remain here under armed guard. What will happen after that, I cannot tell you"

"And the other option?"

"You will all be killed"

"If you do that, the secret of where the Capstone is hidden will die with us," Ariel said.

"Is that right, Breton?" Acilius said, striding forwards and stopping right in front of Ariel. "I do not believe it can be so well hidden that we cannot find it without your help"

"You will never find it," Ariel said defiantly. "For as long as you live, you will never find the Capstone"

Marus Acilius turned around and nodded. Two guards stepped over to Camri and Ariel, took Camri's weapons from him then forced the pair over to the far wall of the pit, where the others were standing, and placed them at the end of the line.

"Actually, no, I want Mr Everlight to get a good view of this" Acilius said, taking the crossbow from one of the guards and ensuring it was loaded. He walked up to Jauffre, turned him around and held the crossbow to the back of the old man's skull.

"Where is the Capstone, Camri?" Acilius bellowed. Camri said nothing.

The sound of the crossbow going off echoed around the chamber like cannon-fire. Jauffre slumped forward, dead before he hit the ground. The others all balked at the cold-blooded murder that had just taken place.

"A product of a bygone era, an ageing freelancer willing to whore his information out to whoever will offer him the most gold," Acilius said without remorse. "And of course, his whipping boy, Eldred Moravahn"

Acilius jammed another bolt into the crossbow and turned to Camri. "I will ask you again, where is the Capstone?"

"Camri, I would rather die than let this sadistic _fuck _get his hands on it," Eldred said softly. "Goodbye"

"Goodbye indeed," Acilius said, firing the crossbow at point-blank range into the bridge of Eldred's nose, killing him in an instant. At the sight of the Dunmer adventurer's dead body slumping to the ground, Ariel began to weep.

"Oh, do be quiet," Acilius snarled. "You dragged Camri into this mess, Breton. These people's blood is on your hands!"

"Don't listen to him, Ariel!" Camri pleaded.

"How does this feel, Camri?" Acilius called. "You can save the world, but you can't save your own friends!"

Acilius then marched up to Horst. "And you, Nord, I believe are under similar circumstances, are you not? Six of you entered Fanacas, now there are but four. So my men must have killed two of your friends. I understand that they were hard-working men, with families, and you led them to their death. Perhaps I will spare the rest of your party of mead-guzzling barbarians if you tell me what I want to know"

Horst stood defiantly. "Do your worst"

Acilius nodded and fired the crossbow into Kail's forehead. His head exploded as the bolt hit it, showering blood and brain matter all over Horst's face. Camri could not believe what he was witnessing. The look of untold agony on Horst's face said it all - like Camri, he had led his friends to this. They had trusted him, and where had it left them?

_Thunk! _The crossbow discharged again as Holjer was executed. Without even stopping, Acilius reloaded and fired the weapon into the head of Krell, the final Nordic adventurer.

"Any of you can stop this!" Acilius said loudly. "Just tell me where the Capstone is!"

Then, he strode up to Hermione Barca. Normally fearless, she now had tears glistening down her cheeks.

"General Acilius, I cannot allow this," another voice said suddenly. Captain Pasqual stepped forward and stood between Acilius and Hermione, ignoring the many longbows trained upon him. "This is outright murder. What sort of Legion General are you?"

"One who gets things done" Acilius said with a wicked grin. "Which is why I have been tasked with retrieving the Capstone, and you only got wrapped up in this because you were on a babysitting job away from managing your measly little band of spell-slingers. Now, stand aside as I deal with another pest that has come from your wretched institution"

"If you want to kill her you'll have to get past me. And might I remind you that the Battlemages are a division of the Imperial Legion, and killing a Legion officer is punishable by execution"

"Well, that would be a shame, would it not?" Acilius said through gritted teeth. He then coldly raised the crossbow and fired it into Pasqual's forehead. An evil smile stretched across his face as he watched the old man fall to the ground, but then he doubled back, feeling an intense, searing pain shooting through his leg. He looked up to see Hermione Barca holding the hilt of a summoned Daedric dagger, the blade of which was embedded deep in his thigh, the very dagger that Captain Pasqual had summoned in his hand and passed back to Hermione a fraction of a second before he had been killed. Acilius had been so preoccupied with taunting Captain Pasqual that he hadn't noticed. Hermione yanked the dagger roughly out of Acilius' leg and slashed wildly at him with it, but he staggered backwards, avoiding the attack. Hermione lunged forwards and punched him as hard as she could in the face, knocking him out cold.

At that moment, everything happened at once. Camri had not missed a beat - as soon as Acilius had fallen, he wrenched the crossbow from his hands, jammed a bolt into it and fired it high into the sky. As it did, arrows rained down from all around, but miraculously, in the confusion the soldiers' aims had been compromised and none found their mark as the four survivors of the horrific massacre dived to the ground.

Then, there was a loud crash as something fell to the ground. It was a chandelier-like iron lattice filled with glimmering Welkynd glass, its supporting chain having been severed by an incredibly-aimed crossbow shot from Camri Everlight. Camri scooped up a handful of shards and handed them to Ariel. "Top yourself up and keep those damn archers at bay!"

Ariel gripped the shards of glass as she saw the scores of archers reloading. She was now officially operating on borrowed time.

The glass turned to dust in her hands in a puff of cerulean light...

The sound of many drawstrings being released echoed around the room...

But not a single arrow got more than a few yards from whoever fired it before it stopped in mid-air and fell harmlessly to the ground.

"Run! Now!" Camri shouted. "Get as many weapons as you can!"

Hermione and Horst nodded, racing towards the steps leading out of the pit. The two guards in the pit accosted Camri, but one fell instantly, nailed by a crossbow bolt, and the other soon followed as he was incinerated by a fireball cast by Hermione. Camri noticed that one of the guards was carrying the Dwarven automatic crossbow he had found, and wasted no time in retrieving it, along with his red glass sword - simply clasping it in his hands made him feel whole again.

The four bolted for the steps as Marus Acilius groggily got to his feet behind them. Arrows flew all around them, but none hitting them, their flight paths corrupted by telekinesis. A soldier appeared at the top of the steps, bow raised...

_Thud!_

He fell back, a crossbow bolt lodged sickeningly in his right eye.

"_Chase them, you fools!" _a voice shouted from somewhere behind them.

_Thud!_

A comrade who took his place met a similar fate.

"Where the hell did you find that thing, Camri?" Horst called.

"Back in Kingscrest. I think the gods are looking down on us today"

The four reached the top of the stairs and were instantly set upon by four soldiers. But they were fired up on adrenaline by what they had just witnessed. One fell to a throwing knife cast by Hermione. One was struck in the throat with a crossbow bolt, and the remaining two were brutally cut down by Horst and his colossal battle-axe.

"Down here!" Hermione called, leading the four down one of Fanacas' main corridors and through the concealed door that the vampires had ambushed them from, what seemed like a lifetime ago. Before Camri went through the door, though, he threw something to the ground which shattered in a shower of glass and liquid on impact - a small glass flask. The substance it spread over the floor stank and kicked up hazy, volatile fumes. He then pulled a torch off a wall bracket, evidently left there by the Legion earlier, and cast it into the slick. The naphtha ignited spectacularly as soon as the torch landed, turning the whole hall into a blazing inferno.

"Thanks, Eldred" Camri said to himself - he had spotted two such bottles on Eldred's belt back in the pit and taken them. Then, he ran through the concealed door and slammed it shut, running to catch up with the others.

He found them, a short distance up a narrow, claustrophobic tunnel, collapsed with exhaustion and emotion.

"Fuck..." Horst said eventually, struggling for words. "How can one man be so cruel? He shot Tarric right in front of us. Said his wound couldn't be treated. Said it was a mercy killing. And my friends, by Ysmir.."

"The Captain gave his life to give us a chance..." Hermione said softly as realisation slowly dawned on her. "He was one of the bravest men I ever knew"

"I know we've all just lost a lot of dear friends, but we can't stop now," Camri said suddenly, ushering everyone to their feet. "And I don't want to go any further up this tunnel. I'm not stumbling around in unfamiliar darkness with those Legion bastards on our tail. We need to be back in the main part of Fanacas and find that back door"

"How do you know it's out there?" Hermione asked, but Ariel seemed to have followed Camri's train of thought.

"It's not in these tunnels. They were still sealed when we got here, and the Dunmer were here before us. They must have used the other entrance to get in here, so it must be in one of the main halls - probably in that barracks room. But I must beg to differ with you, Camri - this tunnel must somehow lead to the other concealed entrance, the trapdoors in the entry hall. We can get the drop on them that way"

"Good thinking," Camri said. "Alright, everyone tool up and let's give these fuckers hell. Before we can find this back door we need to get control of this Godforsaken place"

"Sir, we've searched every inch of the ruin. They're gone"

"No, they can't be," Acilius said. "We know they didn't make it to the entry hall and this whole place is one big circle. Search every possible hiding place, and we'll send a few men back to the caves too"

Acilius' second-in-command, an Orc brute called Borzug gro-Arash, nodded. "It will be done. How are you holding up?"

Acilius winced just thinking about the stab wound in his leg - it had gone deep enough that no amount of magic could mask the pain, not to mention his broken nose and the bright purple ring around his left eye where Hermione had punched him.

"They _will _pay for this. I want you to fuck that bitch to death in front of Camri before we kill him"

"I like your style..." Borzug began before he was distracted by something - a commotion coming from the other end of the ruin, the entry hall.

"Deal with it. I'm going to find the other officers and gather every man we have to surround the entrance to Fanacas"


	10. Chapter 10

Voices echoed up from below.

"_You're telling me we've got no way to put out that goddamn fire?"_

"_Dirt from the ground outside. We can smother it"_

"_The walls of the pit are still wet. It looks like it's been drained recently"_

"_Yeah, that might have been useful about an hour ago, you fucking moron..."_

Horst of Whiterun turned to Hermione Barca and nodded. Then, he leapt down from the trapdoor, landing on top of a Legion soldier, the sheer weight of the landing crushing the life from him. Then, Horst spun in a full circle, his axe held out wide, and savagely beheaded four other soldiers who were surrounding him. A fifth, a few yards away, spun round and charged at him. He made two paces before he was incinerated by a powerful fireball that roared out of the trapdoor, cast by Hermione.

"You lay a finger on my friends, and this is what happens to you!" Horst roared. He quickly realised he was surrounded, but fired up on adrenaline and anger, he didn't care. Two soldiers charged at him, brandishing swords. Using the handle of his axe, he blocked both of their blows then kicked one of them hard in the stomach, sending him tumbling backwards, whilst he slammed his axe down into the head of the other soldier, chopping straight through his helmet and horrifically splitting his head clean in two. Spinning as he heard footfalls behind him, he raised his axe but knew it was too late, as a soldier rushed forwards in a blur, thrusting his sword before him...

The soldier suddenly stopped in his tracks, falling like a marionette whose strings had been cut, his blade stopping inches from Horst's heart. A crossbow bolt protruded from the base of his skull, the weakest point in standard-issue Legion armour. Only then did Horst look up and see Camri Everlight, dangling from the ceiling, holding onto the rim of the other concealed trapdoor with his left hand and brandishing the Dwarven crossbow in his right.

"You're mad, Camri! Anyone ever tell you that?" Horst called up.

"Behind you!" Camri shouted, raising and firing the crossbow and nailing another Legion soldier. As Horst turned round again, a flash of movement dropped down from above him - Hermione Barca landed cat-like in front of him, leaping to her feet in time to slash a Legion soldier's throat with a dagger.

"Shit, there's a lot of them..." Hermione said, backing off as four more soldiers emerged from the balcony overlooking the pit. Camri's crossbow put paid to one of them, but the other three kept advancing. Hermione drew her sword and stood beside Horst.

From his perch, Camri watched the two parrying with the three soldiers, and raised his crossbow to fire off another shot...

_Click!_

Nothing. He knew he couldn't have run out of ammunition - he had located the weapon's storage chamber earlier and made sure it was full. The weapon had some sort of fault.

"Oh, come on!" Camri shouted as he dropped the now-useless weapon to the ground and followed close behind it, drawing his sword as he landed. An arrow fired by someone came whizzing towards him, but Ariel, hidden back up in the trapdoor, stopped its flight.

Camri reached Hermione and Horst, lunging through the gap between them and ramming his sword into the throat of one of the Legion soldiers, just as Horst delivered a killing blow to another. The third dropped his sword.

"I surrender..." he began.

"You don't get the choice, heathen!" Horst bellowed, thudding his axe into the man's neck and decapitating him. Normally, Camri would have let the man surrender, but he and all his comrades had been associates in the horrific murder of so many of his friends. Things had changed.

"We make a push to the barracks," Camri said. "The fire means it's all one way from here. No more getting caught up in ambushes - one more push"

"I'm with you," Horst said, gripping the handle of his axe harder. By now, Ariel had caught up with them. In formation, moving as an arrow with Ariel at the back, they moved swiftly through Fanacas. In the next corridor, leading off to the left, two soldiers accosted them but they were cut down by two lightning bolts, one fired from each of Hermione's hands. Soon, they reached the large room that still contained the dead bodies of Amador Herelas and his two other men, where the Legion had fortified themselves more, creating a line of men crouched behind shields while others fired a volley of arrows at the four.

Ariel flicked her wrists. The arrows all curved upwards, looping round and all perfectly targeted, struck the archers who had fired at them. But as she was doing this, a second wave of archers jumped up and fired. The four could do nothing but dive to the ground to avoid the attack.

Hermione screamed in pain as she landed. An arrow had struck her leg, shattering her ankle.

"You alright?" Camri asked her.

"No, I'm not going to be much use to you anymore..."

Camri pulled the Dunmer crossbow that he was still carrying off his back and handed it to Hermione. "While you're still breathing you're an invaluable asset"

Camri dragged Hermione to her feet and let her lean on his shoulder, dragging her back towards the tunnel that entered the large room. The other two did the same, Ariel doing her best to keep the repeated salvos of bow-fire at bay.

"I can deal with them, but I'll need some cover" Ariel said.

"On it," Camri replied, drawing a conventional longbow, a weapon that seemed paltry in comparison to the powerful crossbows he had been using. He popped out of cover and fired, expertly aiming the arrow into the gap between two shields - a yelp of pain indicated that he had hit something. A couple of archers returned fire, but Camri leapt to the side, avoiding the attack. It was only then did he see a strange flickering in the light that bathed the room, the familiar pale blue glow coming from a Welkynd glass cradle. Subtly looking up as he grabbed another arrow, he saw that it was swinging, commanded by the grip of Ariel's telekinesis. Camri kept running close to the wall of the room, firing off another shot and dodging return fire, until suddenly he saw the iron lattice containing the Welkynd glass reach the peak of a swing, where the chain securing it to the ceiling wrenched free of its fixings, landing right in the middle of the group of Legion soldiers, crushing several of them as it landed. Those that survived were thrown into disarray, ditching the bows and drawing their swords instead. Camri and Horst both charged at the group, taking down a man each as they hit. Immediately, though, they were both surrounded and desperately parrying off the attacks of several soldiers, unable to help each other. As Camri fought, fatigue suddenly began to set in - he hadn't rested or broken pace since Melethar's Refuge. As he bravely held up his shield and slashed with his sword, he knew he was on his last legs...

Then something quite unexpected happened - a large, bulky object crashed down from the ceiling and pulverised several of the Legion soldiers. It was the cradle of Welkynd glass - Ariel had lifted it and dropped it again. Camri quickly dealt with the survivors with two deft swordstrokes then ran to Horst's aid.

As Hermione watched this, watching Horst and Camri fighting their own battles and Ariel skitting around behind them, helping where she could, she noticed one huge man break out from the group and make for her. Through the gaps in his helmet, Hermione could see green skin and an ugly face - an Orc.

The Orc strode up to Hermione, taking her in as he did so. Young, slender, fair-haired, dressed in a tight-fitting fur jacket and most importantly immobilised by her broken ankle.

"I got orders on how to deal with you!" the Orc bellowed as he neared Hermione. "General Acilius told me to make sure Camri Everlight sees me getting a bit more acquainted with you before we kill him!"

"Is that right?" Hermione said, shifting into an upright position, gritting her teeth at the agony coming from her leg.

"Yeah. Now let's get that fur off you - you don't wanna be getting too hot when I..."

The Orc brute never finished explaining his intentions for Hermione before she pulled up Camri's crossbow and fired it at point-blank range, getting the shot through one of the gaps in his helmet and striking him in the eye. The Orc froze where he stood for a few seconds before tumbling to the ground, dead. Then, she looked past, just in time to see Horst cutting down a Legion soldier, seemingly the only one left alive. Camri raced towards her.

"Are you alright?"

Hermione laughed to herself. "What, you think I've never had some grunt try to have his wicked way with me before?"

"They're all gone," Ariel said suddenly. "From in here, at least. There's a lot of life outside but Fanacas seems to be empty"

"You said that last time," Camri remarked.

"I'm sure this time," Ariel said, pointing to the slightly depleted pile of Welkynd glass littering the floor by the ruined chandelier. "I can see from here to High Rock"

"Sadly I didn't see Marus Acilius," Horst said. "Bastard must have got away. I was looking forward to having a few words with him"

"Take a number," Hermione said. "I wish I'd just finished the job and killed him"

"Thanks to you I doubt he'll get very far," Camri said, referring to the large stab wound she had left in Acilius' leg. "Alright everyone, this is it. There's only one thing we can do now, and that's make a run for Dive Rock. But first we need to find the other way out of here"

After a few minutes of searching the room filled with bedding and crates, it was Ariel who found an uneven patch of wall. Pushing on it with her shoulder, it swung open, revealing a tunnel behind it, and more importantly, a trail of regimented bootprints leading through the dust that coated its floor.

"Hermione, how's that ankle of yours?" Camri asked. He had used some healing magic to numb the pain, but the bone was still broken - it could be fixed with nothing more than rest.

"I can barely walk on it," Hermione answered flatly.

Camri took a deep breath. "This is a difficult decision, but you can't come with us. You're going to have to stay in here. We'll find a good hiding place for you"

Hermione sighed. "You'll come back for me, won't you, Camri?"

Camri put a hand on Hermione's shoulder. "Hermione, as long as there is still breath in my body I will _always _be there for my friends. I'll take a look at the Dwarven crossbow too, see if I can get it working again. I'm not planning on waiting around long enough to fight anyone"

"Is that your plan?" Ariel asked. "You're just going to run to the top of Dive Rock and hope for the best?"

"Yes, and so are you. Sorry, Ariel, but I need you. I can't do it alone. Which leaves you, Horst"

"Yeah?" the Nord asked.

"You possibly have the most difficult task of all, but I think you can do it. I need a distraction. I want you to go out in front of me and make a run for it - lead as many of the Legion away from Fanacas as you can. Just run as fast as you can down the hill. Once you reach Cheydinhal you'll be safe


	11. Chapter 11

Soon, Hermione was tucked up in the most easily defendable spot the group could find in Fanacas, in a small tunnel that led to a dead end, a small storage room, accessible only by one of the concealed doors. Camri had stripped down the Dwarven crossbow and located the problem with it - nothing more than a build-up of dirt in the reloading mechanism - and handed it to Hermione, along with all the ammunition he had, and Horst had donated a bottle of mead to pass the time, as he had put it.

"Remember what I said earlier, Hermione" Camri said softly. "I promise I will come back for you"

Hermione said nothing until Camri had turned to leave, then she called to him.

"Godspeed to you, Camri"

* * *

><p>Camri, Ariel and Horst assembled themselves at the hidden rear entrance out of Fanacas - the concealed tunnel eventually led to a door whose outer face was perfectly disguised against the rockface it emerged on in the Valus foothills.<p>

"This is it, then," Horst said. He was unarmed save for a shortsword hanging from his belt - his big axe would only slow him down. "Been nice knowing you"

"Don't put it like that," Camri said. "I'll see you in Cheydinhal for a pint before the day is out. You've got five minutes to lead them as far away as you can, then we're going for our run"

Horst patted Camri on the shoulder, but said nothing as he pushed the concealed door open, letting sunlight flood into the long-forgotten reaches of Fanacas. Then, he took a deep breath and leapt from the door, breaking into a sprint as soon as his feet hit the ground.

"Camri , are you sure we can do this?" Ariel asked.

"No, but we have no choice but to try. Marus Acilius wants the Capstone to impose a new regime on Tamriel through absolute power, and we know from what we've seen of him that he is evil to the core. I can't let him get the Capstone"

* * *

><p>A tense five minutes passed, during which Camri repeatedly checked he had everything he needed. Then, he turned to Ariel.<p>

"Somehow, whenever we start these huge quests I always know that it will come down to you and me at the end. How's it looking out there?"

Ariel cast a life-detection spell on herself. "A lot better than it was. There's still a lot of them around out there, but I think we should be able to get past them - just"

"They took the bait. Thank God for that"

Camri had shed as much weight as he could, carrying only a Dunmer crossbow and a handful of bolts, his sword and a rock the size of a melon he had taken from the rubble at the bottom of the tunnel leading into Fanacas. The other bottle of naphtha he had taken from Eldred Moravahn was also nestled in a pouch on his belt, and Ariel was carrying a mace, taken from a dead vampire. Then, he quickly outlined his plan for finding and destroying the Capstone.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Ready" Ariel said nervously.

"Come on then. One more ordeal and it's over"

The pair followed Horst's footsteps, leaping from the door and wasting no time in breaking into a run, heading east towards a valley that led around the back and up the side of Dive Rock. It was not the most direct route, but they had neither the time nor the equipment to scale its mighty western and southern flanks.

"Legion patrol ahead" Ariel said as they ran. "Doesn't look like too many of them..."

"Thanks. Still got those arrows I gave you?"

"Yes. Wait - there's more coming. From behind the patrol. Moving quickly... it almost looks like they're moving in and out of cover..."

Camri sighed. "Haven't enough people turned up to this party yet?"

In less than a minute, Camri spotted the Legion patrol through the woodland. He lost no time, raising his crossbow and firing off a shot, skilfully taking down one of the soldiers. Immediately, they all spotted him and drew weapons to retaliate...

When a group of figures descended out of the tree canopy, all dressed in black, and attacked the surprised Legion patrol with intense ferocity. They were all dead within seconds - it had been nothing short of a massacre.

One of the figures spotted Camri. Camri froze and raised the crossbow, but the figure dropped its sword and waved.

"Be careful," Camri whispered to Ariel. "Be very careful"

The pair kept running, cautiously approaching these new attackers. As he got closer, Camri could make out their distinctive figures, mainly their tails and the shape of their heads. Argonians.

"I was wondering when you'd show up!" Camri called to the Argonian who had waved to him. It was none other than King Jararka, ruler of the Argonians, King of Black Marsh, and a good friend of Camri and Ariel's.

After the pair warmly shook hands, King Jararka looked Camri up and down. "You look like you've been through seven planes of Oblivion"

"Something like that" Camri replied. "You cannot possibly imagine... I assume you are here for the same thing as I am?"

"History repeats itself, Camri," King Jararka said. "Once again, yourself and the nation of Black Marsh are looking for a weapon that will change the course of history. My people have great need of the Capstone and its powers"

Camri held up his hands. "Look, Your Majesty, I do not have time to start discussing politics with you, but I'm afraid you're fighting your own war this time. I know what's going on in Morrowind and Black Marsh and I want no part of it"

"You are going to retrieve the Capstone, though, are you not?"

Camri nodded. "Any assistance you could provide would be greatly appreciated, since right now we have a couple of hundred Imperial Legion bastards bearing down on us and I really have had enough of fighting my own countrymen"

King Jararka turned to face his Argonian soldiers. "I would trust this man, and his Breton friend, with my very life, not least the Capstone. From now on, we need to keep the Legion away from him"

By the time Jararka turned around again, Camri and Ariel had gone.

"Was that the right thing to do?" Ariel asked as the pair continued their desperate run to the top of Dive Rock.

"Ariel, much as I admire King Jararka, much as I like him as a friend, his motives for getting the Capstone are no different to anyone else's. If any nation gets their hands on it, it will start a war in Tamriel - no two ways about it. Sadly, we just became the only two people in the world who can stop that from happening. How are our Imperial mates doing anyway?"

"There's a lot of them following our trail," Ariel said nervously. "The Argonians will probably hold them back but not for long. The simple truth is that it's going to be close"

Camri shook his head. "It always is"

* * *

><p>Absolutely exhausted, Camri Everlight and Ariel Lasaille reached the summit of Dive Rock. Down in the valley behind them, they could see countless metal suits of armour, moving towards them like one giant organism. Towards the front of the group, the glimmer of a silver ceremonial helmet was unmistakeable. Amped up on painkilling spells and potions, Marus Acilius was leading from the front.<p>

On a clear morning such as that, the view from Dive Rock was stunning. The mountain was also known as 'The Balcony Of The World' and it was easy to see why - standing on the edge of the sheer cliff that made up its western face, one could see across much of Cyrodiil, Morrowind and even parts of Hammerfell and Elsweyr. The Niben basin, the grand Imperial City and the breathtaking Jerall and Valus Mountains could all be seen. Sadly, Camri didn't have time to admire the view as he fumbled around in his quiver, pulling out a specific arrow, one where he had used his alchemical skill to strip the silver plating from its head, revealing bare wood underneath. He held it in his left hand and gripped Eldred Moravahn's second phial of naphtha in his right.

"This is why I needed you," Camri said to Ariel. "Set the tip of this arrow on fire"

Ariel obliged.

"Now, make sure you don't miss this shot"

With that, Camri tossed the bottle of naphtha high into the air, shortly followed by the flaming arrow. Immediately, Ariel commanded the flight of the arrow and sent it soaring skywards, striking the bottle of naphtha at the zenith of its arc. The bottle shattered as the arrow hit it and its contents caught fire almost immediately, sending a shower of burning oil falling back down to the ground.

It happened exactly as Camri had intended. The summit of Dive Rock was drenched in burning naphtha which began to melt away the snow like it were made from soap bubbles.

"How long have we got?" Camri asked.

"Two minutes, if that. I told you it was going to be close... Camri! Look!"

Ariel gesticulated wildly at something in amongst the strange heap of burning snow. A dull orange light, growing brighter all the time, was radiating from beneath it. Eventually, the snow parted to reveal something quite unlike anything Camri or Ariel had ever seen.

It was about two feet high and similarly wide, forged from a jet-black glass-like substance. Its carving was immaculate, its flanks looking like the surface of a millpond. And from deep within it shone a bright yellow core. It radiated with something beyond divine, beyond good or evil, something primal.

"We've found it..." Camri gasped.

"Destroy it! Quickly!"

"Right" Camri said, coming back to his senses. He took the mace from Ariel and approached the Capstone. As he walked, thoughts flooded through his mind.

He saw Ariel bent down, with Commander Aryon holding a crossbow to her head, executioner-style.

He saw the horrific image of Marus Acilius heartlessly murdering his friends one-by-one.

And finally, he saw Ariador, and remembered what he had been told. The quicker he destroyed the Capstone, the more cataclysmic its explosion would be.

He wasn't sure if he cared about anyone's safety or wellbeing anymore.

_One strong hit to the peak should do it, _Camri thought as he raised the mace high above the Capstone.

"Camri, what are you doing?"

A soft voice distracted him just before he smashed the Capstone back into Oblivion. He turned and saw Ariel, then suddenly thought about Hermione, hiding alone in Fanacas, and Horst, making a desperate run to Cheydinhal with half of the Imperial Legion on his trail.

He could quite happily wipe out the Legion, but he could not knowingly bring harm to his friends.

Then, he heard another voice.

"Camri Everlight, step away from the Capstone or I swear to Talos himself that I will kill you and Ariel before you can even turn around!"

He looked up, dropping the mace, to see General Marus Acilius standing about thirty yards away from him, getting nearer, a large pack of soldiers behind him. He raised his bow and drew a bead on Ariel.

"Ariel, stand back," Camri said evenly. Picking up the mace, he swung it just hard enough to crack one of the flanks of the Capstone. A deep rumble began emitting from it, and white light - pure magicka, burst from the crack, forcing it ever wider - it was growing at the rate of an inch or so every second, but in the bright midday sun, the light was crucially hidden from Acilius' view.

Acilius fired his bow.

But Ariel's reactions were just that bit quicker, and she nudged the flight of the arrow just enough to send it thunking harmlessly into the ground. Quickly, Acilius drew another arrow.

"I know the battle in Fanacas must have drained you, Ariel!" Acilius taunted. "You can't keep doing this forever!"

He fired another arrow, which Ariel again deflected, but not as strongly - it shot past Camri, narrowly missing him before tumbling off Dive Rock's sheer cliff-face. Acilius had been right - Ariel had barely any magical strength left in her.

"Camri, do something!" Ariel cried.

"Hey! Marus!" Camri shouted. "Take your damn Capstone!"

With every ounce of strength he had left, Camri placed both of his hands under the Capstone, lifted it slightly and shoved as hard as he could, sending the stone, in the process of some bizarre slow-motion explosion, tumbling down the hill towards Acilius!

It landed with a thud just by Acilius' feet, the cracked surface facing him with the crack running horizontally, before it gave way and the entire surface split open. An almighty wave of pure magicka lanced out of the stone, slicing straight through Acilius' legs. With a look of absolute untold horror on his face, he toppled forwards into the stream of magicka.

The energy completely obliterated him. It dissolved him and his armour, every trace of his being, in a fraction of a second. It was like he had completely vanished into thin air. Then, the destruction of the Capstone went critical.

Dazzlingly bright magicka blasted out in all directions, with a mighty boom that could be heard across the entire province, as the Capstone ripped itself apart.

The soldiers who weren't vapourised or incinerated alive by the magicka were swept away by a flash flood created by acres of snow that melted as soon as the wave of magicka passed over it. Trees were ripped from their roots and burned to cinders. The destruction of the Capstone was cataclysmic. Nobody anywhere near it survived.

Apart from Camri Everlight and Ariel Lasaille.


	12. Chapter 12

In the seconds between Camri splitting the surface of the Capstone and its explosion, he had dimly remembered something in the corner of his mind, when he had perused a map of the Valus foothills prior to setting off from Cheydinhal. The faint memory saved his life. He had grabbed Ariel by the hand and, with nowhere else to go, they had raced down the southern flank of Dive Rock. It was steep, but not completely sheer like the famous western face, and they just about managed to keep traction in the snow before they reached their destination - a long-abandoned Ayleid mine burrowing into the mountain, presumably where the Welkynd glass littering Fanacas had been mined.

Ducking in sight of the main entrance, Camri clutching Ariel in his arms, they saw the sky turn a dazzling white for a few seconds as the magicka storm swept overhead. Then, for the first time in days, they heard nothing. Silence. Tranquility.

For nearly half an hour, the pair sat in each other's arms, resting in the mouth of the mine, admiring the view it offered across the mountains and the plains of Cyrodiil.

"We did it, Ariel!" Camri said. "I knew we could. Even when I realised the impossible odds we were facing, I knew we could make it..."

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry for getting us caught up in this. If I hadn't come to you straight away about the Capstone..."

"Then someone much less compassionate than ourselves might have got their hands on it and altered the course of Tamriel's history together," Camri said, before sighing deeply. "Someone had to stand up to the giants. The mouse had to roar. That's what I do. Come on, we'd better go and find the others"

* * *

><p>Moments before the climax atop Dive Rock, an Elite Party patrol had stormed Fanacas and found it completely empty. Two men had stayed behind to keep watch, but the rest had gone outside. It had been their undoing as a tidal wave of meltwater, heated to boiling point by magicka, had roared down the valley and swept them all off their feet. Those who weren't boiled alive were pulverised by collisions with trees or rocks.<p>

Some time later, when Camri Everlight and Ariel Lasaille entered Fanacas, they made a beeline for Hermione's hiding place in the network of concealed tunnels. At the last bend before the place where they had left Hermione were the dead bodies of two Legion soldiers, both killed by crossbow fire.

"That's my girl!" Camri said ecstatically as he raced around the corner. Hermione was still sat exactly where she had been left, and upon seeing Camri she lowered the Dwarven crossbow and grinned widely.

"Well, look who it is! I heard a big explosion and assumed that you must have caused it..."

"Of course it was me," Camri said, helping Hermione to her feet and embracing her. "It was pretty spectacular. And before you ask, yes, Marus Acilius is dead. His greed got the better of him and he had a close encounter with unrefined magicka - rather a lot of it"

"You are a hero, Camri," Hermione said. "And so are you, Ariel. I wish I could be more like you two"

"What do you mean?" Ariel said. "Haven't you _seen _yourself on this quest?"

"She's right" Camri said. "Everywhere from Melethar's Refuge, to the vampire ambush, to the battle against the Imperial Legion, you've kicked some serious arse"

Hermione smiled warmly. "Thank you, both of you. But I hope to never see another one of these bloody things in my life!"

With that, Hermione threw her crossbow to the ground, as Camri did the same.

* * *

><p>By the time the three reached Cheydinhal, Horst of Whiterun had cleaned himself up, rested and was waiting at the gate to meet them.<p>

"Nice fireworks, Camri!" he called as he saw them.

His escape had been something of a close shave.

He had been only fifty yards ahead of the pursuing Legion platoon when he had burst into the streets of Cheydinhal, where he had immediately surrendered to the town guard - panicking, they had joined the Legion's cause rather than that of the crazed, hairy-bearded Nord, his face and clothes covered in scratches and blood. But since he had left common ground, he had left the Legion's jurisdiction and entered that of the town guard, re-earning the right to a fair arrest. Then, as he was being led towards the jail in the town's castle, he had been spotted by Count Andel Indarys, who had a few things to say to the town guard.

It transpired that on his way to the Arcane University, Eldred Moravahn had decided to pay a visit to one of his countrymen - the Count - and explain exactly who the Imperial Legion were working for. As a result, Horst was allowed to go free.

"This is a good day for the free world," Horst said as the group reached him, and he gazed up towards Dive Rock in the distance. With the layer of snow and permafrost on its peak now melted, it looked completely different.

Many people had seen the flash, heard the explosion, seen the floods of meltwater. There were eyewitness reports of large numbers of Imperial Legion soldiers making their way up into the Valus foothills in the hours before it happened. Although nobody knew the exact details of what had happened, everybody realised that Tamriel had changed that day.

* * *

><p>Camri Everlight's house was almost completely bare when he heard a knock on his door. Much of the furniture and decorations, and some of his lesser-valued treasures, had been sold. The rest had been hidden in his stash, a remote, trap-laden Ayleid ruin in the West Weald which he used to store the rewards of his adventures in. He now had nothing but his trusty red glass sword and a large backpack full of possessions to his name, much the same as Ariel Lasaille, who sat on Camri's bed, packing a few remaining items into her bag.<p>

It had been a few days since the end of the ordeal in the Valus foothills. A huge weight still hung on their hearts for the friends they had lost on the quest, cruelly taken from them before their time - not to mention being pushed to the limits of physical endurance. After their desperate, adrenaline-fuelled charge to reclaim Fanacas, and the dash up Dive Rock to beat Marus Acilius to its summit, they had arrived in Cheydinhal on their last legs. Hermione Barca had not yet left the care of the healer in Cheydinhal chapel, apart from briefly to report the tragic news to a Mages' Guild messenger about the deaths of Captain Pasqual, Tarric and Ariador.

Camri answered the door. The man who greeted him was Imperial, about the same age as him. He had known him for years, but given the events of recent days he was surprised to see him turn up. His name was Avily Cantrius, although most knew him as General Cantrius. After his predecessor had died of old age, he was quite new to his job but had received many recommendations, not least one from Battlemage Captain Larand Pasqual. Avily Cantrius was the General-in-Chief of the Imperial Legion, the highest-ranking soldier in Tamriel, the man in charge of the Imperial Legion.

"Camri, I know what you have been through, but please can I talk to you?" Cantrius asked sincerely as he stood at Camri's door.

Camri hesitated for a few seconds, before letting Cantrius in and smiling weakly. "Friendship always lasts. It's all that's getting your foot through this door right now"

Avily took a deep breath as he closed the door behind him. "Camri, I'll come out with this now. I have heard from my men who survived their mission about General Acilius' actions. He disobeyed his orders. I would never, ever have condoned what he did. Had he survived, I would have had him thrown in the Imperial Prison until he rotted to death"

"He executed my friends one by one right in front of me, because we wouldn't tell him where the Capstone was. The Capstone that you sent him to retrieve"

Avily held up his hands. "I wanted to safeguard the Capstone to make sure that no-one involved in the war in Morrowind got hold of it. I was not aware that Acilius had his own motives. It came as much of a shock to me. His orders were to use reasonable force to gain control of it, not to murder anyone who got in his way in cold blood"

Camri stepped closer to Avily. "You knew of his past, Avily. Do you know what he did to a friend of mine in the Thieves' Guild? He wanted to get information out of him about the Grey Fox, and do you know how he tried to get that information out of my friend? He cut off his eyelids and for three days forced him to witness bestiality and rape performed by and upon other prisoners he had in the Jail - political prisoners, not criminals. Most of them took their own lives when they were finally released because they couldn't bear to live with what they had been through. It only stopped because the Guild recruited the Dark Brotherhood to go in there and put him out of his torment. You placed a dangerous and fundamentally evil man in charge of hundreds of Legion soldiers and expected no codes of conduct to be broken? Amador Herelas was a bad man, admittedly, but his men were just soldiers, like yours, following orders and serving their homeland. I dread to think what Acilius would have done to them if he'd captured them. Executed them in cold blood, probably!"

"Camri, I'm sorry for your friends..."

Camri lowered his voice. "Maybe you'd like to tell that to Horst of Whiterun, who is now travelling back to Skyrim with the burden of having to tell the wives and children of his party what happened to their husbands, their fathers. Sorry, Avily, but the damage has been done"

"Camri, I came here to get you back on my side. On Cyrodiil's side. It is fair for you not to accept my apology, but please don't blame everyone else for Marus Acilius' actions. The truth is you stopped what could very easily have been a major outbreak of war in Tamriel. You spared many lives"

Camri sighed. "But I also took many lives. It weighs heavily on me, Avily. The charge we led through Fanacas after the Legion gained control of it claimed the souls of many of your soldiers, all of them probably good, honest working men with families. Whatever you want with me, I'm sorry, but I just can't cope with it right now"

* * *

><p>Wheels had been set in motion, and over the next few days, Tamriel continued to change. The remaining members of the Elder Council, excluding King Jararka of Argonia (who had been far enough away from the Capstone to avoid being harmed by its destruction) and King Hlaalu Helseth of Morrowind, committed to a major peacekeeping effort in the east of Tamriel. Several other organisations pledged various resources, but the Mages' Guild declined - having lost three good men in the quest to secure the Capstone, they had no interest in becoming involved in the nation's affairs for some time.<p>

Amidst this news, Camri Everlight and Ariel Lasaille stood outside the chapel in Cheydinhal on a crisp morning. As they stepped inside, they cast another look at Dive Rock. A snowstorm high up in the mountains had capped it off with a dusting of again, although it still remained a couple of feet lower in height after the Capstone had been destroyed.

Inside the chapel, a few people prayed in pews and at altars around the hall. The strains of a pipe organ built along one wall echoed through the stony chapel as the congregation's organist played a mournful Nordic air.

Camri turned to Ariel. "She's downstairs"

The pair descended the staircase in the centre of the church, down to the lower levels of the building. Camri pushed open the door into Hermione Barca's room, and was pleased to see that she had at least managed to get out of bed, and was sitting in an armchair reading a book. She smiled warmly as she saw the pair.

"I thought I'd never see you two again!" Hermione said.

"We just needed a few days to rest and think," Ariel replied. "We've made up our minds"

"What do you mean?"

"We're both going away," Camri said sadly. "Far away from anywhere. Probably north, to Skyrim. The happiest days of my life were when I lived in the wilderness, away from civilisation and society. I've spoken to General Cantrius about it. He wanted us to stay around in case there was another crisis, but I've told him he can find himself a new hero"

"I understand, Camri," Hermione said. She had not known Camri for long, but she knew he was a man with almost limitless resolve. But the quest to find the Capstone had pushed him to the very edge of his physical and mental endurance - indeed, it had not been long since the quest to stop the Dragon Break, which had flung him all across Tamriel, with a huge string-pulling organisation turning the whole of civilisation against him.

"There's still a lot of Tamriel I haven't seen," Camri went on. "Now's the time for me and Ariel to do it"

Hermione smiled again. "Who knows? Maybe one day, Camri, you'll settle down and lead a normal life"

"I don't think I could ever find a wife who would put up with me, Hermione" Camri said.

Hermione struggled to her feet, leaning on the armchair to keep weight off her injured ankle. "I'll never forget you two. You know where to find me if you get lonely out there in the wilderness"

Hermione then embraced Ariel then did the same to Camri, holding herself close to his chest for a long time, before they said their goodbyes. As the pair left the room, Hermione slumped back into the armchair, a single tear welling in her eyes.

"I'd have put up with you, Camri" she whispered to herself.


	13. Epilogue

The young Wood Elf glanced at the footprints in the snow. Even up here, at the top of the world, where tracks did not stay fresh for long, there were hundreds of them. Ever since word had filtered out about what had happened up there on top of Dive Rock, including a lengthy article in the Black Horse Courier consisting mostly of speculation, adventurers and treasure-hunters had flocked up the mountain. The more unscrupulous had plundered the many dead bodies for anything of value that could be sold, whilst the more magically-inclined had been fascinated by the high levels of ambient magicka in the air.

"Hey! Eramar! Look at this!"

Eramar turned around. His friend, Dastor, was pointing at something buried in the snow just off the north peak of the mountain. Eramar quickly walked over for a look.

"Oh, lovely," Eramar said, grimacing. It was a skeleton, presumably someone who had perished at the top of the mountain whose body had been covered in snow and ice, exposed by the explosion. By the skeleton's ears, and its stature, the two Wood Elves deduced it must have belonged to a Dark Elf, but they knew no more.

Dastor reached down and pulled something off the skeleton's hand - a ring. It was freezing cold to the touch.

"I never feel right about robbing the dead" Eramar said.

Dastor examined the ring in his hands.

"He can have it back," Dastor said. "It's made of copper. It's worthless"

Eramar caught the ring as Dastor tossed it to him. His friend was right. Other than the name SELEVRAS engraved in it in crude lettering, the ring was completely unremarkable


End file.
